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BV  1533  .S32  1915 
Schauffler,  Adolphus 

Frederick,  1845-1919. 
God's  book  and  God's  boy 


God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 


The  James  Sprunt  Lectures  delivered  at 
Union  Theological  Seminary  in  Virginia 


God's  Book  and  God's 


Boy 


A.  F.  SCHAUFFLER,  D.D. 

President  New   York  City  Mission  Society 

Author  of  ** Pastoral  Leadership  of 

Sunday-School  Forces,^  etc. 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming     H.    Revell     Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  19 15,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  31  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


THE  JAMES  SPRUNT  LECTURES 

IN  nineteen  hundred  and  eleven  Mr.  James  Sprunt 
of  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  gave  to  the  Trus- 
tees of  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  Virginia 
the  sum  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  a  perpetual  lectureship  which  would  enable 
the  institution  to  secure  from  time  to  time  the  services 
of  distinguished  ministers  and  authoritative  scholars 
outside  the  regular  Faculty  as  special  lecturers  on  sub- 
jects connected  with  various  departments  of  Christian 
thought  and  Christian  work.  The  lecturers  are  chosen 
by  the  Faculty  of  the  Seminary  and  a  committee  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  and  the  lectures  are  published  after 
their  delivery  in  accordance  with  a  contract  between 
the  lecturer  and  these  representatives  of  the  institution. 
The  fourth  series  of  lectures  on  this  foundation  is  pre- 
sented in  this  volume. 


W.  W.  Moore. 


President  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  Virginia. 


Preface 

THE  material  contained  in  this  book  is  based 
on  no  inconsiderable  experience  in  han- 
dling work  along  lines  of  Sunday-school 
instruction.  For  many  years  the  author  had  the 
privilege  of  superintending  one  of  the  largest  mis- 
sion Sunday-schools  in  New  York  City,  and  for  over 
thirty  years  he  has  had  the  joy  of  teaching  a  weekly 
class  for  Sunday-school  teachers,  taking  the  Inter- 
national Uniform  Lessons  for  his  theme.  He  hopes, 
therefore,  that  whatever  he  has  said  in  the  lectures 
herewith  offered  to  the  public  will  be  found  to  be 
helpful,  and  sensible  as  well.  Indeed  nothing  can 
be  helpful  to  the  Sunday-school  work  unless  it  is 
based  on  common  sense  and  actual  experience. 

The  author's  effort  has  not  been  to  give  an  ex- 
haustive presentation  either  of  The  Book  or  of  The 
Boy.  His  aim  has  rather  been  to  view  The  Booh 
from  a  somewhat  unusual  standpoint,  and  to  give 
the  teacher,  so  far  as  is  possible,  a  more  vivid  and 
picturesque  grasp  of  what  are  called  Bible  times 
and  Bible  characters.  In  dealing  with  the  scholar 
the  author  has  also  endeavoured  to  work  along  a 
similar  line  trying  to  arouse  in  the  teacher  a  new 
interest  in  the  personality  of  the  scholar  such  as 
shall  stimulate  him  to  further  study. 

7 


8  Preface 

With  the  exception  of  the  lectures  on  "  Joseph  " 
and  "  Moses,"  which  were  delivered  in  a  course  at 
the  Bible  Teachers'  Training  School,  New  York 
City,  all  the  lectures  in  this  book  were  delivered  at 
the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  Richmond, 
Ya.  They  were  taken  down  stenographically,  and 
though  corrected  by  the  author,  still  will  doubtless 
show  the  defects  of  extemporary  address.  It  is  to 
be  hoped,  however,  that  what  they  lose  along  this 
line  may,  in  part  at  least,  be  atoned  for  by  the 
greater  directness  that  is  usually  found  in  extem- 
porary delivery. 

It  is  hoped  that  these  lectures  may  be  helpful 
both  to  lay  teachers  and  to  the  ministry  as  well. 
The  author's  conviction  is  very  profound  that,  in 
the  average  Sunday-school  throughout  the  country, 
the  minister  ought  to  be  leader  of  his  teaching 
force,  taking  charge  of  the  teachers'  weekly  meet- 
ing for  the  study  of  the  lesson,  and  building  his 
teachers  up  on  the  sure  foundation  of  the  Word. 
With  this  hope  in  view  he  was  glad  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  address  the  promising  body  of  theological 
students  at  Richmond,  and  is  equally  glad  to  address 
a  larger  constituency  through  the  medium  of  the 
printed  page. 

That  God's  blessing  may  go  with  this  little  book 
is  his  earnest  desire  and  prayer. 

A.  F.  S. 

New  Yorkj 


Contents 

I.  The  Study  of  the  Bible  as  Litera- 

ture— Plus  What  ?         .        .        .11 

II.  The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  .        .       30 

III.  The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots       .       5  3 

IV.  A  Bird's-Eye  View  of  the  Acts  of 

THE  Apostles  ....       70 

V.  Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister      88 

VI.  Moses— Leader  and  Lawgiver  .  105 

VII.  The  Five  Gates  of  Approach  to  the 

Human  Mind 120 

VIII.  The  Religious  Use  OF  THE  Imagination  143 

IX.  The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  .         .166 

X.  The  Teacher's  Eleven  Helpers         .  1 87 

XL       The  Sunday- School  Worker's  Widen- 
ing Horizon 208 


THE  STUDY  OF  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE, 
PLUS  WHAT? 

MY  theme  in  this  course  of  lectures  is  two- 
fold, dealing  first  with  GoiTs  Book  and 
second  with  God'^s  Boy.  In  handling 
this  twofold  theme  the  limitations  of  the  lecture 
course  naturally  prevent  any  exhaustive  treatment 
either  of  the  Book  and  its  contents  or  of  the  Boy, 
his  nature  and  his  needs.  My  aim  will  be  rather  to 
try  and  throw  light  on  the  Book  from  a  standpoint 
not  often  dealt  with  by  commentaries  or  even  ordi- 
nary lesson  helps. 

The  lectures  on  the  Book  aim  to  illustrate  one 
of  the  ways  in  which  the  Book  may  be  studied  in 
order  to  impart  to  it  life  and  motion.  I  desire  to 
make  it  to  the  teacher  more  of  a  living  Book  than 
it  has  been  in  days  gone  by. 

In  dealing  with  the  Boy  my  aim  is  to  present 
certain  phases  of  the  subject  of  paidology  calculated 
to  stimulate  the  teacher  to  realize  what  a  fascinat- 
ing personality  the  Boy  is  and  induce  him  to  pursue 
further  the  study  of  how  to  reach  this  Boy  with 
this  Book. 

Here  is  a  boy  and  in  front  of  him  is  the  teacher. 
In  his  hand  each  holds  the  Bible.  What  is  this 
teacher's  business?    To  get  that  Book  into  that 

II 


12  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

boy's  mind.  That  is  all.  Into  that  boy's  heart  no 
teacher  can  get  the  Book.  The  Holy  Spirit  doeis 
that.  But  the  teacher  can  get  the  Book  into  the 
boy's  head ;  provided  he  knows  two  things — first, 
the  Book ;  second,  the  Boy.  If  he  knows  only  the 
Book,  he  will  fail.  If  he  knows  only  the  boy,  again 
he  will  fail.  He  must  know  both  Book  and  boy. 
Then,  with  God's  blessing,  he  will  succeed.  To  be 
known,  the  Book  and  boy  must  be  studied. 

We  are  often  urged  by  modern  scholars  to  study 
the  Bible  as  literature,  and  this  contention  is  right. 
Only  we  would  utter  a  caution  here.  The  Bible  is 
not  to  be  studied  as  a  literature  on  a  par  with  the 
Koran,  the  Yedas,  the  Zend-Avesta,  and  the  Con- 
fucian literature.  They  are  literature  and  the  Bible 
is  also  literature,  but  the  Bible  stands  on  an  emi- 
nence by  itself.  As  Mount  Blanc  towers  above  the 
rest  of  the  Alps,  so  the  Bible  towers  above  all  the 
religious  literature  of  the  whole  world.  Neverthe- 
less, the  Bible  is  literature. 

Most  of  our  scholars  think  of  it  as  one  book.  It 
is  really  sixty-six  books  written  by  many  authors 
in  many  times,  in  many  climes,  in  many  different 
circumstances.  Take,  for  example,  the  authors. 
Some  of  these  authors  were  highly  educated  men, 
as,  for  example,  Moses,  who  contributed  so  largely 
to  the  Old  Testament ;  a  man  learned  in  all  the 
wisdom  of  the  Egyptians.  That  meant  all  the 
wisdom  there  was  in  those  days.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  was  Amos,  an  uneducated  man  who 
said  of  himself  that  he  was  neither  a  prophet,  nor 


The  Bible  as  Literature— Plus  What  ?     13 

the  son  of  a  prophet,  but  a  common  herdsman 
(Amos  vii.  14).  In  the  New  Testament  we  have  the 
Apostle  Paul,  born  and  bred  in  the  University  City 
of  Tarsus,  but  reared  in  Jerusalem  at  the  feet  of 
the  renowned  scholar  Gamaliel  (Acts  xxii.  3).  On 
the  other  hand  we  have  the  Apostle  Peter,  a  fisher- 
man of  Galilee,  knowing,  doubtless,  how  to  read 
and  write,  but  being  otherwise  unlearned  and 
ignorant.  Thus  we  have  two  superbly  educated 
men  and  two  men  with  very  meagre  education, 
combining  to  contribute  to  this  literature. 

We  have  royal  authors,  for  I  doubt  not  that 
David  wrote  some  of  his  songs  while  on  the  throne 
and  Solomon  wrote  nearly  all  that  he  wrote  of  the 
Proverbs  on  the  throne. 

Per  contra,  we  have  (if  I  may  be  allowed  to  use 
the  expression)  some  jail-birds,  for  Jeremiah  wrote 
a  great  deal  of  what  he  wrote  in  jail,  and  Paul, 
who  wrote  much  behind  the  bars  in  prison. 

Most  of  these  authors  never  saw  each  other ;  for 
example,  Isaiah  never  saw  Ezekiel ;  Moses  never 
saw  Samuel.  Moreover,  they  wrote  in  different 
lands — Moses  in  the  Sinaitic  Peninsula ;  Ezekiel  in 
exile ;  Paul,  the  peripatetic  preacher,  wrote  almost 
everywhere. 

Note  then  the  marvel  of  it  all !  Men  of  different 
social  standing,  men  in  widely  separated  parts  of 
the  world,  men  who  had  never  seen  each  other, 
producing  a  literature  of  sixty-six  books  which  we 
yet  recognize  as  one  Book.  Through  it  all  runs 
the  one  divine  purpose,  showing  that  through  all 


14  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

these  writers  there  flowed  an  influence  restraining, 
impelling,  guiding,  illuminating.  And  so  we  do 
well  to  call  it  one  Book,  though  it  be  a  library  of 
sixty-six  volumes. 

These  men  wrote  according  to  their  individual 
bent.  Those  who  were  poetically  inclined  broke 
out  in  poetry.  The  more  prosaic  writers  confined 
themselves  to  ordinary  history.  Those  who  were 
philosophical  dealt  with  wisdom  literature.  Those 
who  had  a  turn  towards  writing  dealt  in  epistolary 
writings,  and  he  who  closed  the  volume  who  was 
on  the  Isle  of  Patmos  seeing  vision  after  vision, 
breaks  out  into  apocalyptic  glory.  You  see  then 
the  composite  nature  of  this  Book. 

I  have  said  that  a  large  part  of  the  Book  is 
poetical.  It  is  hard  for  many  humble  Christians 
to  realize  there  is  so  much  poetry  in  the  Bible,  and 
one  reason  is  that  in  our  poetry  rhyme  and  rhythm 
are  very  dominant. 

^'  The  Assyrian  came  down  like  a  wolf  on 
the  fold, 
And  his  cohorts  were  gleaming  in  purple 
and  gold." 

You  recognize  that  at  once  as  poetry.  But  the 
Hebrew  cared  nothing  in  his  poetry  for  rhyme  or 
rhythm.  In  his  poetry  the  Hebrew  cared  very 
largely  for  what  may  be  called  the  antiphonal 
form,  or  statement,  of  the  poetic  idea,  or,  if  I  may 
change  the  expression,  he  dealt  largely  in  statement 
and  restatement,  in  afiirmation  and  response.     That 


The  Bible  as  Literature— Plus  What?     15 

is  the  main  form  in  which  Hebrew  poetry  is  cast. 
Take  any  of  the  Psalms  and  you  will  see  what 
I  mean.  Take  Psalm  twenty-three :  Statement : 
Jehovah  is  my  Shepherd;  Response:  I  shall  not 
want.  Statement :  He  maketh  me  to  lie  down  in 
green  pastures;  Response:  He  leadeth  me  be- 
side still  waters.  Psalm  one  hundred  and  three : 
Statement :  Bless  Jehovah,  O  my  soul ;  Response : 
And  all  that  is  within  me,  bless  his  holy  name. 
Statement :  Bless  Jehovah,  O  my  soul ;  Response : 
And  forget  not  all  his  benefits.  Statement :  Who 
forgiveth  all  thine  iniquities;  Response:  Who 
healeth  all  thy  diseases. 

So  it  goes,  back  and  forth,  back  and  forth,  as 
though  there  were  two  choirs  singing,  the  one 
giving  utterance  to  the  statement ;  the  other 
pouring  forth  the  response.  You  realize  this  when 
you  turn,  for  example,  to  the  poetic  prophecies  of 
Balaam,  uttered  as  he  was  standing  on  the  moun- 
tain and  looking  over  the  plain  where  Israel  was 
encamped.  You  see  the  antiphonal  nature  of  his 
speech  when  you  can  read  in  Balaam's  prophecies 
the  statement  without  the  response.  Standing 
alone  it  will  make  good  sense.  Let  me  now  read 
to  you  the  statement  as  found  in  Numbers,  twenty- 
third  chapter :  "  How  shall  I  curse  whom  God 
hath  not  cursed  ?  For  from  the  top  of  the  rocks  I 
see  him.  Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  dwelleth  alone. 
Who  can  count  the  dust  of  Jacob  ?  Let  me  die 
the  death  of  the  righteous." 

That  makes  good  sense,  but  you  have  cut  out  the 


i6  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

response.  Now  read  it  with  the  statement  and  the 
response.  Statement:  How  shall  I  curse,  whom 
God  hath  not  cursed  ?  Response :  And  how  shall 
I  defy,  whom  Jehovah  hath  not  defied  ?  State- 
ment :  For  from  the  top  of  the  rocks  I  see  him ; 
Response :  And  from  the  hills  I  behold  him.  State- 
ment :  Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  dwelleth  alone ;  Re- 
sponse: And  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the 
nations.  Statement:  Who  can  count  the  dust  of 
Jacob  ?  Response :  Or  number  the  fourth  part  of 
Israel  ?  Statement :  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the 
righteous  ;  Response  :  And  let  my  last  end  be  like 
his. 

When  in  some  such  way  we  grasp  the  Hebrew 
concept  in  this  matter  of  poetic  thought,  then 
Hebrew  poetry  becomes  far  more  entrancing  and 
significant,  and  we  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  poet 
of  the  olden  days.  I  want  to  recommend  very 
strongly  the  study  of  "  The  Literary  Study  of  the 
Bible,"  by  Professor  Moulton,  along  this  whole  line 
of  the  setting  of  Hebrew  poetry,  especially  as  he 
illustrates  it  in  that  wonderfully  dramatic  scene 
of  the  song  of  Deborah  and  Barak. 

Take  another  instance  of  the  literary  form  in 
which  the  Bible  is  cast.  The  book  of  Jonah  has 
been  the  most  ridiculed  book  of  any  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  yet  it  is  the  most  artistically  con- 
structed of  any  of  the  books  of  the  Bible.  There 
are  only  four  chapters,  which  we  might  call 
Strophes,  in  the  book  of  Jonah,  setting  forth,  how- 
ever, as  no  other  book  in  the  Old  Testament  does, 


The  Bible  as  Literature — Plus  What?     17 

God's  universal  love  and  pity  for  all  mankind. 
Take  this  division,  Strophe  One — Theme :  Heathen 
sailors,  in  great  distress,  call  upon  Jehovah  and  are 
delivered.  Heathen  sailors  !  Far  from  the  Jewish 
concept  was  it  that  heathen  sailors  might  call  on 
the  God  of  Abraham  and  find  response,  but  in  the 
very  first  chapter  you  find  that  is  the  truth.  Sec- 
ond Strophe  (or  Chapter) — A  Hebrew  prophet,  in 
great  distress,  calls  upon  Jehovah  and  is  delivered. 
Third  Strophe — Heathen  Nineveh,  in  great  distress, 
calls  upon  Jehovah  and  is  delivered.  Fourth 
Strophe — Dialogue  between  Jehovah  and  Jonah, 
setting  forth  God's  universal  compassion  on  all  of 
His  creatures. 

This  literature  is  not  only  poetical,  but  it  is  pro- 
phetic. By  prophecy  I  do  not  mean  simply  the 
foretelling  of  coming  events.  I  am  one  of  those 
who  believe  thoroughl}'-  that  the  prophets  did  fore- 
tell events  that  were  centuries  in  the  future,  but 
that  was  not  the  major  part  of  the  prophet's  work. 
The  major  part  of  the  prophet's  work  was  the 
forthtelling  of  God's  will,  God's  promises  and  judg- 
ments. There  are  many  who  seem  to  think  that 
the  prophets  wrote  their  books  very  much  the  way 
a  minister  writes  his  sermons.  Now  if  there  is  one 
way  above  another  in  which  the  prophet  did  not 
work,  that  is  the  way.  Almost  everywhere,  if  it 
were  possible,  the  prophet  first  spoke  his  message 
face  to  face  with  his  hearers.  Then  he  wrote  down 
a  condensed  account  of  it,  the  very  heart  and  kernel 
of  what  he  had  said.     Isaiah  prophesied  for  sixty 


l8  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

years,  but  you  can  read  the  whole  book  of  Isaiah 
in  a  morning.  The  major  part  of  what  he  said  has 
perished,  but  what  he  wanted  to  preserve  has  been 
preserved. 

Of  course,  there  were  times  when  the  prophet 
could  not  speak  face  to  face  with  his  audience,  as 
was  the  case  with  Jeremiah  when  he  was  in  jail. 
So  he  called  for  Baruch  and  dictated  to  him  the 
message  he  wanted  to  give  and  Baruch  wrote  it 
down  and  read  it  in  the  temple  (Jeremiah  xxxvi.) ; 
but  that  was  only  because  Jeremiah  could  not  do 
so  himself.  Ezekiel  could  not  give  his  message  to 
God's  people  in  Judea  face  to  face  because  he  was 
in  captivity,  so  he  wrote.  But  whenever  they 
could  speak  face  to  face,  they  always  did  so. 

Bearing  in  mind,  then,  the  prophetic  manner  as 
above  suggested,  take  the  book  of  Amos  and  realize 
that  this  man  must  have  delivered  a  series  of  ad- 
dresses in  Bethel  where  one  of  the  two  golden 
calves  had  been  set  up  in  the  northern  kingdom, 
and  that  what  we  have  here  is  the  very  condensed 
essence  of  what  Amos  had  to  say.  Realize  the 
situation.  Amos  was  born  in  the  southern  king- 
dom. He  was  sent  by  God  to  preach  against  the 
sins  of  the  northern  kingdom.  Between  the  north- 
ern and  the  southern  kingdoms  there  was  bitter 
jealousy.  For  a  southern  man  to  come  to  the  north 
to  rebuke  the  north  for  its  sins  was  a  most  delicate 
action.  In  1861  if  any  man  from  south  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line  had  come  North  to  preach  to  us 
about  our  sins  I  fear  very  much  that  he  would  have 


The  Bible  as  Literature — Plus  What"?     19 

had  to  return,  perhaps  more  swiftly  than  he  had 
come,  and  if  at  that  time  a  man  had  come  from  the 
North  to  the  South  to  preach  against  slavery,  prob- 
ably his  return  would  have  been  greatly  accelerated 
by  your  efforts. 

Now  mark  the  skill  of  Amos  in  putting  his  mes- 
sage. Use  your  imaginations  here  a  little  and 
realize  that  the  moment  this  man  appeared  in  the 
courtyard  of  the  temple  at  Bethel  they  would 
recognize  him  from  his  garb  and  speech  as  a  man 
from  the  south.  Nevertheless,  a  Jew  always  listens 
to  hear  what  a  man  has  to  say.  Now  Amos  comes 
into  the  courtyard  of  the  temple  at  Bethel  and  be- 
gins :  "  Thus  saith  Jehovah ;  For  three  transgres- 
sions of  Damascus,  yea  for  four,  I  will  not  turn 
away  the  punishment  thereof."  That  is  his  theme 
for  the  first  day.  That  was  good  tidings  for  the 
Israelites.  Damascus  was  their  greatest  foe  on  the 
northeast,  so  while  this  man  is  prophesying  Je- 
hovah's wrath  against  Damascus  I  fancy  I  can  see 
a  smile  wreathing  the  faces  of  many  and  I  hear 
them  say,  "  He  seems  to  be  down  on  Damascus. 
That  is  comforting."  So  Amos  closes  his  address 
and  goes  his  way. 

The  second  day.  Lo,  this  prophet  appears  again. 
This  day  his  message  is  as  follows :  ''  Thus  saith 
Jehovah ;  For  three  transgressions  of  Gaza,  yea  for 
four,  I  will  not  turn  away  the  punishment  thereof." 
On  that  day  as  he  dwells  on  the  sins  of  the  Philis- 
tines I  fancy  I  bear  one  say  to  another,  "  That  is 
fine.     Yesterday  he  was  down  on  Damascus.     To- 


20  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

day  he  is  down  on  the  Philistines.  That  man  is 
grand."  At  the  close  of  this  address  I  hear  some 
man  saying  to  Amos,  "  Is  that  all  that  you  have  to 
say  ?  "  and  Amos  replies,  "  No,  I  will  be  here  to- 
morrow." 

The  third  day.  The  crowd  begins  to  increase. 
The  excitement  becomes  contagious  and  the  crowd 
eagerly  awaits  the  third  message.  *'  Thus  saith  Je- 
hovah ;  For  three  transgressions  of  Tyrus,  yea  for 
four,  I  will  not  turn  away  the  punishment  thereof." 
*'  Oh,"  says  the  Jew,  "  Tyrus !  Mistress  of  the  sea. 
That  concerns  us  because  here  is  this  man  prophe- 
sying against  Tyrus.  This  man  hews  to  the  line 
and  the  plummet  and  though  he  is  from  the  south, 
he  has  discernment.  Amos,  have  you  anything 
more  to  say  ?  "  "  Yes,  I  will  be  here  to-morrow," 
and  they  reply,  "  Good ;  we  will  have  all  our  friends 
here  to-morrow  to  hear  you.     This  is  fine." 

The  fourth  day.  *' Thus  saith  Jehovah;  For 
three  transgressions  of  Edom,  yea  for  four,  I  will 
not  turn  away  the  punishment  thereof."  Now 
Edom  was  she  who,  in  the  gorge  of  Petra,  hid  al- 
ways in  the  rocks  and  said,  "  No  one  shall  bring  me 
down,"  and  here  was  this  prophet  saying  that  Edom 
shall  be  abased  and  shall  hide  in  the  rocks  no  longer 
in  safety. 

Do  you  begin  to  see  the  excitement  accompany- 
ing the  delivery  of  the  message  day  after  day  ?  Do 
you  see  how  this  crowd,  becoming  more  and  more 
filled  with  enthusiasm,  is  gathering  in  ever  increas- 
ing numbers  to  hear  what  this  man  has  to  say  ?    So 


The  Bible  as  Literature — Plus  What?     21 

it  went  on.  One  day,  Ammon ;  the  next  day, 
Moab ;  and  then  there  came  a  day — day  number 
seven — when  he  fairly  startled  them.  *'  Thus  saith 
Jehovah ;  For  three  transgressions  of  Judah,  yea 
for  four,  I  will  not  turn  away  the  punishment 
thereof."  "  What  did  he  say  ?  Judah  ?  Why,  he 
is  from  Judah.  Is  he  down  on  Judah  ?  "  "  Thus 
saith  Jehovah  ;  For  three  transgressions  of  Judah, 
yea  for  four,  I  will  not  turn  away  the  punishment 
thereof."  Why,  that  filled  them  with  amazed 
pleasure ;  the  idea  of  this  man  decrying  his  own 
southern  kingdom  ! 

Thus  Amos  is  preparing  for  his  ultimate  message 
to  Israel  and  on  the  last  of  these  consecutive  days 
when  the  crowd  is  very  great  this  is  the  message — 
"  Thus  saith  Jehovah ;  For  three  transgressions  of 
Israel,  yea  for  four,  I  will  not  turn  away  the  punish- 
ment thereof."  J^ow  he  is  home.  Now  he  has 
gotten  down  to  his  final  message,  bringing  himself 
up  to  it  as  tactfully  as  possible.  Now  he  stands 
before  them,  as  Nathan  stood  before  David  when 
he  said :  *'  Thou  art  the  man ; "  and  here  he  is  say- 
ing, "  Ye  are  the  people  for  whom  God  hath  given 
me  a  message." 

See;  when  you  understand  the  environment, 
when  you  grasp  the  method  of  this  man,  every- 
thing becomes  instantly  intense  with  life.  The 
message  becomes  living  and  fascinating. 

Yes,  I  say  the  Bible  is  literature.  We  can  say  of 
it  as  David  said  of  Goliath's  sword,  "  Give  it  to 
me ;  there  is  none  like  it." 


22  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Take  another  of  these  Old  Testament  passages 
which  you  will  find  in  Isaiah,  in  the  tenth  chapter, 
beginning  at  the  twenty-eighth  verse.  I  shall  read 
the  passage  before  I  begin  to  explain  it.  "  He  is 
come  to  Aiath,  he  is  passed  through  Migron ;  at 
Mich-mash  he  layeth  up  his  baggage ;  they  are 
gone  over  the  pass ;  they  have  taken  up  their  lodg- 
ing at  Geba ;  Kamah  trembleth ;  Gibeah  of  Saul  is 
fled.  Cry  aloud  with  thy  voice,  O  daughter  of 
Gallim  ;  hearken  O  Laishah,  O  thou  poor  Anathoth. 
Madmenah  is  a  fugitive ;  the  inhabitants  of  Gebim 
flee  for  safety.  This  very  day  he  shall  halt  at 
Nob ;  he  shaketh  his  hand  at  the  mount  of  the 
daughter  of  Zion,  the  hill  of  Jerusalem.  Behold, 
the  Lord,  Jehovah  of  hosts,  will  lop  the  boughs 
with  terror  ;  and  the  high  of  stature  shall  be  hewn 
down,  and  the  lofty  shall  be  brought  low." 

Now  that  is  about  as  dry  to  the  average  reader 
as  sawdust  because  he  knows  very  little  about  the 
times  and  circumstances.  It  is  for  us  to  illumine 
and  throw  light  upon  a  passage  like  that  so  that  the 
reader  may  understand  it  and  instead  of  its  being 
as  dry  as  sawdust,  it  shall  be  as  juicy  as  grape- 
fruit. 

What  was  the  situation  ?  Sennacherib  is  march- 
ing against  Judah  and  Jerusalem  with  irresistible 
power,  with  outstretched  wings  like  an  eagle  flying 
over  its  prey.  City  after  city  goes  down.  Neither 
Judah  nor  Jerusalem  has  power  to  resist.  Judah 
trembles  and  Jerusalem  is  in  fear  and  Hezekiah  is 
in  despair.     Just  at  that  juncture  it  is  that  Isaiah 


The  Bible  as  Literature — Plus  What  ?     23 

gives  bis  divine  message  and  pictures  to  Judah  the 
oncoming  of  this  victorious  host.  Town  after 
town,  city  after  city  falls,  as  given  in  the  lines  I 
read,  until  the  enemy  reaches  Nob,  close  to  Jeru- 
salem. There  he  is  pictured  as  waving  his  hand 
contemptuously  over  Jerusalem,  but  there  also 
Jehovah  is  pictured  as  lopping  his  bough  and  hew- 
ing down  the  high  ones,  so  that  his  feet  do  not  con- 
taminate the  City  of  David.  Knowing  that  Isaiah 
was  a  man  to  whom  God  had  revealed  the  future,  this 
message  would  come  to  the  people  like  a  very  mes- 
sage from  above,  giving  Judah  deliverance  and 
peace  and  opportunity  for  repentance.  And,  in- 
deed, so  it  happened.  Sennacherib  never  got  into 
the  City  of  Jerusalem.  God  lopped  his  bough. 
God  laid  him  low  and  he  crept  home  to  meet 
death  in  his  home  and  Judah  and  Jerusalem  were 
delivered. 

But  I  want,  if  I  can,  to  make  this  a  little  more 
vivid.  You  must  try  to  use  your  imaginations, 
to  put  life  into  these  things  again.  So  lend  me 
your  imaginations  for  a  few  moments. 

Imagine  that  Canada  were  to  us  the  formidable, 
overshadowing  power  that  the  Assyrian  was  to 
Jerusalem.  Imagine  that  Canada  had  started  to 
conquer  New  York  and  that  we  in  New  York 
knew  that  we  had  no  power  to  resist.  On — on — on 
she  comes — irresistibly.  Now  Canada  in  marching 
down  towards  New  York  would  naturally  come 
across  at  some  central  point,  say  Niagara.  Then 
there  would  be  the  following  cities  that  she  would 


24  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy- 

take  up  on  her  way  down  against  Manhattan : 
Buffalo,  Kochester,  Syracuse,  Utica,  Schenectady, 
Albany,  Poughkeepsie,  Tarrytown,  Yonkers.  That 
would  be  the  line  she  would  come  down ;  the 
Mohawk  Yalley  east,  the  Hudson  Yalley  south. 
Imagine  that  we  are  in  New  York,  excited  and 
filled  with  fear  because  Canada  is  coming  and  we 
have  no  power  to  resist.  Imagine  then  that  some 
man  in  New  York,  known  to  us  as  one  to  whom 
God  often  had  revealed  His  will,  should  come  into 
one  of  our  squares,  say  Madison  Square  or  Union 
Square,  and  we,  knowing  that  he  had  a  message  to 
deliver  from  God,  should  gather  there  to  learn  what 
he  had  to  say  regarding  the  oncoming  of  Canada. 
Imagine  these  to  be  his  words,  "  She  has  come  to 
Niagara  ;  she  has  passed  on  to  Buffalo  ;  at  Kochester 
she  has  laid  up  her  baggage  ;  she  has  taken  up  her 
lodgings  at  Kome  ;  Syracuse  is  afraid ;  Utica  has 
fled ;  lift  up  thy  voice,  O  daughter  of  Schenectady ; 
cause  it  to  be  heard  even  to  Albany,  O  poor  Hud- 
son ;  Poughkeepsie  is  removed  ;  the  inhabitants  of 
Tarrytown  gather  themselves  together  to  flee,  but 
as  yet  she  shall  remain  at  Yonkers  ;  she  shall  wave 
her  hand  over  the  city  of  New  York,  but  there 
shall  Jehovah  lop  her  bough  with  terror  and  Canada 
shall  never  trod  the  streets  of  Manhattan." 

See  what  that  means  ?  That  is  what  it  meant 
to  them.  In  that  way  you  begin  to  see  how  these 
prophets  in  their  presentation  of  their  messages 
always  laid  right  hold  of  present  life.  They  always 
had  their  feet  on  the  sidewalk.     Thus  we  begin 


The  Bible  as  Literature— Plus  What  ?     25 

to  understand  the  method  of  these  prophets  in  the 
preparation  and  delivery  of  their  messages. 

But  my  theme  was  not  the  study  of  the  Bible  as 
literature,  but  the  study  of  the  Bible  as  literature, 
Plies  What  ?  You  may  know  the  Bible  as  litera- 
ture from  Genesis  to  Eevelation  and  yet  gain  no 
power  from  it.  You  may  know  the  Bible  critically 
and  yet  it  may  fail  to  have  any  influence  over  your 
life,  governing  and  shaping  your  every  action.  You 
may  know  all  about  the  poetry  of  the  Bible,  all 
about  the  Apocalypse,  a  ad  still  fall  short  in  that 
which  is  the  most  important  thing  in  the  sacred 
volume. 

What  then  is  this  plus  which  I  am  trying  to  em- 
phasize ?  It  is  this,  that  this  Book  is  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth.  If 
I  miss  that,  I  miss  the  plus  of  it,  though  I  may 
have  all  the  rest  of  it.  This  is  where  we  preachers 
and  teachers  of  the  Word  want  to  bear  in  mind 
that  while  it  behooves  us  to  know  it  all,  still  we 
miss  the  major  part  of  it  if  we  miss  the  plus. 

Week  before  last  I  faced  in  a  church  on  the 
Bowery  in  New  York  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  Bowery  beats,  mostly  down  through  drink. 
They  were  there  to  celebrate  the  twenty-second 
birthday  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  of  one  of  their 
number — Dave  Kanney  by  name.  Twenty-two 
years  ago  Dave  Kanney  was  a  Bowery  beat.  As 
he  told  me — "I  have  broken  every  law  of  God 
and  man,  excepting  one ;  I  never  murdered.  Every- 
thing else  I  have  done."    Twenty-two  years  ago  a 


26  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

preacher  was  preaching  on  the  corner  of  Bowery 
and  Broome  Streets  Avhen  this  tramp  sauntered  by ; 
heard,  began  to  heed,  by  God's  grace  was  revolu- 
tionized, changed  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  For 
twenty-two  years  I  have  watched  him,  a  man  re- 
generated like  a  flash,  and  he  has  stayed  regenerated 
from  that  day  to  this ;  and  he  got  up  on  the  plat- 
form and  told  those  four  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
men  off  the  street  what  God  had  done  for  him. 

Suppose  I  had  said  to  him,  "  Tell  us,  Dave,  what 
you  know  of  the  antiphonal  form  of  Hebrew 
poetry."  He  would  have  replied,  "  What  did  you 
say?  Antiphonal  form  of  Hebrew  poetry?  I 
never  heard  of  that."  But  he  does  know  the 
fifty-first  Psalm  and  although  he  does  not  know  it 
antiphonally,  he  knows  what  it  means  to  a  sinner. 
That  is  the  plus  of  it  that  Dave  Ranney  has  got. 
He  has  got  the  major  part  of  it.  It  has  transformed 
him.  It  has  revolutionized  him.  It  has  glorified 
him. 

One  of  our  missionaries  picked  up  on  a  cold 
winter  night  on  Bleeker  Street  a  poor  street-walker. 
IN'ellie  Conroy  was  her  name.  She  was  in  her 
stocking  feet,  though  there  was  snow  on  the  ground. 
She  was  dressed  in  calico,  though  it  was  bitter  cold. 
The  man  who  kept  her  was  a  coloured  man,  showing 
how  far  she  had  gone  down.  Our  missionary  took 
her  up  and  by  God's  grace  the  plus  of  it  came  to 
Nellie  and  she  was  revolutionized  and  metamor- 
phosed. The  power  of  salvation  came  to  Nellie. 
She  was  taken  to  a  home  and  the  girls  with  whom 


The  Bible  as  Literature — Plus  What?     27 

she  used  to  associate  called  on  her  for  a  while  to 
see  her.  But  Death  had  laid  its  hand  on  Nellie 
and  she  talked  with  them  about  the  change  that 
had  come  over  her.  One  day  she  said,  "Girls, 
nothing  but  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God  could 
cleanse  the  sins  of  Nellie  Conroy.  They  were  too 
dark  for  anything  else."  And  one  day  she  said  to 
them,  "Girls,  when  the  roll  is  called  up  yonder 
and  the  name  of  Nellie  Conroy  is  called  and  I  say, 
'  Here,'  won't  they  be  surprised  ?  "  That  was  the 
plus  of  it  for  Nellie  Conroy. 

One  day  I  was  visiting  an  old  and  sick  parish- 
ioner of  mine.  In  the  course  of  conversation  I 
found  that  he  had  no  clear  vision  as  to  the  present 
pardon  of  his  sins. 

Upon  my  asking  him,  "  Do  you  think  your  sins 
are  forgiven  ?  "  he  replied,  "  I  do  not  know,  but  I 
hope  that  they  are."  Turning  to  Komans  viii.  1,  I 
read,  "  There  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to 
them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus,"  and  called  his  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  this  utterance  of  the  apostle 
justifies  us  in  believing  in  a  present  pardon.  I  then 
turned  to  Romans  v.  1  and  again  read,  "  Being, 
therefore,  justified  by  faith  we  have  peace  with 
God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  and  once 
more  I  called  his  attention  to  the  statement  that 
we  are  justified,  and  not  that  we  possibly  may  be 
at  some  future  time. 

After  this  explanation  the  man  seemed  to  gain  a 
new  vision.  At  last  he  said,  "  Why  did  not  some 
one  tell  me  all  this  before ;  I  have  been  hoping  for 


28  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

pardon  some  time  in  the  future  and  lo  !  the  gift  of 
pardon  is  a  present  gift.  This  is  good  tidings  for 
me."    See  again  the  plus  if  it. 

At  an  inquiry  meeting  during  a  revival  season  a 
young  man  was  assigned  to  me  for  conversation. 
He  seemed  a  most  attractive  young  fellow.  After 
he  had  talked  a  little  while  he  said  to  me,  **  My 
Sunday-school  superintendent  gave  me  this  card  on 
condition  that  I  write  my  name  in  the  vacant  space, 
which  I  did.  I  never  would  have  done  it  if  I  had 
known  the  trouble  that  it  would  give  me,  for  I  have 
had  no  peace  since  I  put  my  name  there." 

On  that  he  passed  over  the  card  to  me,  on  which 
was  printed  in  large  type  John  iii.  16  with  the 
blank  space  for  the  word  "  Whosoever  "  and  the 
word  "  Belie veth  "  changed  into  "  Believing."  In 
the  blank  space  the  young  man  had  written  his 
name.  On  reading  that  I  said  to  him,  "  My 
friend,  God  was  hard  after  you  when  He  inspired 
your  superintendent  to  give  you  this  card,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  even  now  urging  you  to  accept 
absolutely  the  truth  of  that  card." 

We  then  knelt  down  and  prayed.  All  of  a  sud- 
den during  his  prayer  there  was  an  abrupt  change 
from  petition  to  praise.  He  then  arose  from  his 
knees,  his  face  radiant  with  the  new-found  hope, 
and  saying,  "  I  must  find  my  mother  and  tell  her ; 
she  is  in  the  building  here  somewhere,"  he  hurried 
away. 

Now  ask  yourself  the  question,  "  What  did  the 
old  man  and  the  young  man  know  about  the  Bible 


The  Bible  as  Literature — Plus  What  ?     29 

as  literature  ?  "  Simply  nothing.  But  they  knew 
it  as  the  power  of  God,  and  was  not  that  the  plus 
of  it? 

Once  more.  When  we  stand  by  the  grave  of 
one  who  has  died  in  the  Lord  and  look  down  on 
that  coffin  so  soon  to  be  hidden  from  our  sight,  it 
is  not  as  any  form  of  literature  whatever  that  we 
recall  certain  words  that  come  to  us,  "I  am  the 
resurrection  and  the  life  ;  he  that  believeth  in  me, 
though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live."  That  is 
God's  message  to  us.  It  is  not  prophecy,  not  poetry, 
not  anything  but  a  divine  message  God  gives  to 
heal  bruised  hearts. 

When  the  believer  lies  on  his  last  couch  and  knows 
his  feet  are  slipping  over  the  brink  of  the  river 
it  is  not  as  antiphonal  poetry  that  he  turns  to  the 
Twenty -third  Psalm,  but  as  to  divinely  inspired 
words,  and  with  dying  utterance  he  sings,  "  Yea, 
though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  I  will  fear  no  evil ;  for  thou  art  with  me  ;  thy 
rod  and  thy  staff  they  comfort  me." 

See,  then,  the  plus  of  it.  Praise  be  to  His  name, 
we  may  enter  into  the  understanding  of  this  spir- 
itual richness.  All  the  rest  of  it  is  grand  and  we 
commend  it  to  your  careful  study,  but  over  and 
above  everything  else,  never  forget  that  the  Word 
of  God  is  truly  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to 
all  who  believe. 


II 

THE  TWO  GREAT  BIBLE  DRAMAS 

THEKE  are  various  ways  of  studying  God's 
Word.  One  is  the  microscopic  way  ;  this 
consists  in  taking  a  single  text  and  ex- 
amining it  elaborately.  There  is,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  telescopic  way ;  that  consists  in  taking  large 
sweeps  of  the  history  of  Bible  times,  swift  reviews 
of  Biblical  biographies,  large  bird's-eye  views  of 
God's  dealing  with  the  children  of  men.  The 
way  I  have  adopted  for  this  course  of  lectures,  as 
far  as  the  Book  is  concerned,  is  the  latter,  thus 
taking  wide  sweeps  of  the  divinely  inspired  history. 

We  shall  understand  better  God's  dealing  with 
mankind  if  we  understand  the  progress  of  the 
history,  if  we  realize  how  God  perfects  that  which 
was  originally  imperfect,  and  broadens  out  and 
develops  that  which  was  originally  narrow  and 
circumscribed. 

The  title  of  this  chapter  leads  me  to  put  in  a 
caveat,  lest  any  one  perchance  should  think  that 
I  regard  either  the  New  Testament  or  the  Old 
Testament  as  in  any  sense  fictitious,  or  imaginary. 
I  do  not.  The  reason  I  put  these  two  books  before 
you  to-night  as  two  dramas  is  merely  for  the  sake 
of  picturesqueness.     Now  it  is  an  old  thought  that 

30 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  31 

this  world  is  a  stage,  and  that  all  living  creatures 
are  actors  in  this  changeful  drama  of  human 
history.  Taking  this  idea,  therefore,  I  find  that 
the  Old  Testament  is  really  one  vast  drama,  as  is 
also  the  New  Testament. 

As  dramas  are  usually  divided  into  five  acts,  so, 
simply  for  the  sake  of  clearness,!  shall  divide  these 
two  dramas  into  five  acts,  giving  each  drama, 
however,  a  prelude.  My  divisions  into  ^ve  acts  in 
each  case  may  not  meet  your  approval.  I  have  no 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord  "  for  the  divisions ;  they  are 
the  clearest  I  can  make.  If,  however,  you  can 
improve  on  them,  no  one  will  be  more  charmed 
than  the  writer.  At  all  events,  they  will  serve  as 
guiding  posts,  so  that  as  you  pursue  the  subject 
further  (as  I  hope  you  will),  you  may  be  either 
guided  thereby,  or  strike  out  clearer  outlines  more 
fitting  to  the  capacity  of  those  to  whom  you 
minister. 

Beginning  with  the  Old  Testament  drama,  we 
have  the  grand  prelude  of  the  Creation.  "  In  the 
beginning  God  created."  That  is  more  satisfactory 
to  us  than  "  In  the  beginning  matter,"  or,  "  In  the 
beginning  force,"  or,  "  In  the  beginning  the  un- 
knowable." Those  are  human  statements.  The 
Biblical  statement  is,  "In  the  beginning  God 
created."  This  satisfies  the  human  heart.  Then 
follows  the  marvellously  condensed  statement  of 
God's  creative  activity,  closing  up  with  the  intro- 
duction of  man.  All  that  is  the  prelude,  for  as  yet 
there  have  been  on  earth  no  human  actors.     It  is 


32  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

worth  our  while  to  remember  that  while  at  various 
stages  in  this  majestic  prelude  the  record  says, 
"  And  God  saw  that  it  was  good,"  only  when  man 
arrives  is  the  record  changed,  now  reading,  "  And 
God  saw  that  it  was  very  good."  Sun,  moon,  stars, 
plants,  animals,  good — the  climax,  man,  in  His  own 
image,  very  good. 

Old  Testament  Drama^  Act  Z  From  Adam  to 
Noah. 

Here  we  have  man's  first  probation  and  failure. 
A  command  was  issued,  a  command  was  broken. 
Union  at  first  existing  between  God  and  man,  then 
shattered,  and  a  great  chasm  cleft  by  sin  between 
a  Holy  God  on  one  side  and  sinful  man  on  the 
other. 

This  first  act  of  the  Old  Testament  drama,  which 
is  very  briefly  recorded,  ends  in  disaster.  God  looks 
down  from  Heaven  to  see  if  there  is  any  who  does 
good,  and  finds  none  who  does  good,  no,  not  one. 
They  have  all  gone  astray,  every  man  after  the  im- 
agining of  his  own  heart ;  and  the  result  is  that  the 
first  act  of  the  Old  Testament  drama  is  signalized 
by  the  wiping  out  of  all  of  the  sons  of  men  saving 
only  one  godly  family,  preserved  by  divine  grace. 

Act  Ily  from  Noah  to  Abraham.  A  Second 
Probation. 

The  first  probation  was  disastrous.  God  begins 
again,  this  time  with  a  godly  family,  and  strives  by 
promises    and    by  gracious  long-suffering  to  woo 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  33 

men  to  Himself  personally.  In  this  second  act  there 
is  a  very  high  civilization  developed;  men  build 
cities,  become  musicians  and  poets,  become  artists ; 
mankind  becomes  strong  and  puffed  up  in  its  own 
conceit.  The  result  is  that  men  said,  *'  Come,  let  us 
build  and  make  for  ourselves  a  name  lest  we  be 
scattered  "  ;  and  God  says,  "Go  to,  let  us  confound," 
and  breaks  up  all  of  those  plans  of  men  and  scatters 
them  over  the  face  of  the  earth. 

In  these  two  acts  we  have  God  dealing  with  all 
mankind  without  distinction  of  family,  or  race. 
These  two  acts  are  very  briefly  recorded.  They 
occupy  at  least  two  thousand  years  (probably  more), 
but  the  whole  story  is  compacted  in  eleven  chap- 
ters as  over  against  all  the  rest  of  the  Bible 
which  covers  only  another  two  thousand  years. 
That  is  to  say,  two  thousand  years  of  history  (at 
the  inside)  in  eleven  chapters,  and  the  balance  of 
history  up  to  A.  D.  90  or  100  in  all  the  rest  of  the 
Bible  put  together.  That  shows,  to  my  mind,  that 
in  the  divine  thought  those  two  acts  were  merely 
preliminary  to  other  acts  which  we  shall  now  con- 
sider.    This  brings  us  to 

Act  III,  Old  Testament  Drama.  From  Abra- 
ham to  Kings. 

Now  God  changes  His  plan  in  dealing  w4th  the 
sons  of  men.  Now  He  calls  out  from  all  that  wrack 
and  ruin  of  idolatrous  environment  one  family. 
With  that  one  family  He  establishes  a  special  cov- 
enant ;  to  that  one  family  He  gives  a  special  prom- 


34  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

ise.  "  In  thee  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed."  God  accepts  one  family  with  whom  and 
with  whose  descendants  He  establishes  peculiar  re- 
lations and  gives  them  a  peculiar  promise.  The  rest 
of  mankind  is  not  abandoned.  Any  man  among  the 
Gentiles  may  find  God  if  he  seeks  after  Him,  as  did 
Melchisedek,  as  did  in  some  lesser  sense  Balaam. 
But  my  point  is  that  in  Act  III  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment drama,  there  is  a  change  of  plan,  which  change 
of  plan  has  lasted  down  to  the  present  day.  From 
then  on  well-nigh  all  revelation,  all  prophetic  utter- 
ance, is  confined  to  the  chosen  people. 

This  Act  III  occupies  a  large  space  in  the  divinely 
inspired  record,  for  here  we  find  the  kernel  and 
heart  of  much  that  is  developed  later  on  in  the  ful- 
fillment of  the  divine  purpose.  Here  in  this  period, 
for  example,  we  find  under  Moses  a  legislation 
which  the  late  Attorney-General  Brewster,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, declared  to  me  is  the  basis  of  all  of  our 
modern  civilization  and  all  of  our  modern  legisla- 
tion. Here  in  this  act  you  have  a  typology,  which, 
in  connection  with  the  law,  was  the  schoolmaster 
to  bring  Israel  down  the  centuries,  until  all  types 
were  fulfilled  in  Jesus  the  great  Antitype.  Here 
you  have  high  priest,  sacrifice,  altar.  And  it  is  in- 
teresting to  see  what  evolution  there  is  in  the  his- 
tory as  developed  from  these  germs.  Abraham's 
family  encampment  had  Abraham  for  High  Priest, 
a  family  high  priest;  it  had  an  altar,  a  family 
altar;  it  had  a  sacrifice,  a  family  sacrifice.  See 
later  on  how  that  develops.     When  Israel  marches 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  35 

out  of  Egypt  we  have  now  not  a  family  camp,  but 
a  national  camp ;  we  have  not  a  family  altar,  but  a 
national  altar;  we  now  have  not  a  family  high 
priest,  but  a  national  high  priest,  Aaron  and  his 
descendants ;  we  have  not  a  family  sacrifice,  but  a 
national  sacrifice  by  Israel  on  the  day  of  atonement 
— surely  an  evolution,  surely  a  development. 

Later  on,  when  Israel  comes  into  the  Promised 
Land,  while  the  national  high  priest  remains  the 
same,  while  the  national  sacrifice  remains  the  same, 
we  have  in  place  of  the  national  encampment  a 
national  city,  Jerusalem,  and  we  have  in  the  place 
of  the  simple  national  tabernacle  the  magnificent 
national  temple,— again  a  further  development. 
Now,  as  we  look  down  to  the  last  act  of  the  New 
Testament,  we  find  a  further  marvellous  develop- 
ment. Jerusalem  on  earth  develops  into  the  New 
Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God  out  of  Heaven. 
The  national  high  priest  develops  into  Jesus  the  in- 
ternational high  priest,  a  high  priest  for  Gentile 
and  Jew  ;  the  national  sacrifice  develops  into  an  in- 
ternational sacrifice,  the  Lamb  of  God  slain  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world ;  the  national  temple 
passes  away,  for  in  that  world  there  is  no  temple, 
the  Lord  God  Almighty  and  the  Lamb  being  the 
temple  thereof.  So  from  Abraham  and  the  family 
we  pass  to  the  national  and  the  internatioual,  from 
the  earthly  into  the  heavenly,  from  the  temporal 
into  the  eternal. 

In  this  third  act  of  the  Old  Testament,  you  see  a 
people  sent  down  from  the  Land  of  Promise  into 


36  God*s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

bondage  in  Egypt,  there  welded  in  the  fires  of 
affliction  into  a  national  solidarity  that  has  not  been 
broken,  for  lo  these  four  thousand  years ;  for  there 
is  no  simon-pure  blood  to-day  that  can  be  compared 
to  the  blood  of  Israel.  Welded,  I  say,  into  a  national 
solidarity  that  has  not  been,  that  never  will  be, 
broken. 

You  see  in  this  third  act  a  nation  bodily  trans- 
planted from  the  land  of  bondage  into  the  land  of 
liberty ;  the  promise  to  Abraham  fulfilled,  that  to 
his  seed  shall  that  land  be  given. 

In  this  third  act  you  see  monotheism  held  to 
with  a  tenacity  not  perfect,  but  wonderful,  amidst 
the  surrounding  polytheism  ;  for  whether  in  the 
land  before  Abraham's  descendants  went  to  Egypt, 
or  while  they  were  in  Egypt,  or  when  they  re- 
turned to  the  land,  always  their  environment  was 
idolatrous.  The  only  light  shining,  setting  forth 
the  true  God,  shone  in  Israel ;  and  the  call,  "  Hear^ 
O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  God,"  rang 
through  those  centuries,  not  perfectly  heeded,  but 
always  heard.  Here  also  the  two  commands, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
might,"  and  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself,"  rang  down  from  age  to  age. 

So  you  see  that  the  third  act  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment drama  is  one  of  great  importance.  This  act 
was  one  that  was  played  in  the  midst  of  wonderful 
civilizations.  When  I  was  a  younger  man,  lectur- 
ing on  Abraham,  I  was  asked  the  question,  "  Could 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  37 

Abraham  read  and  write  ?  "  and  my  answer  then 
was  that  I  could  not  say.  That  would  not  be  my 
answer  to-day.  My  answer  to-day  would  be,  "  Cer- 
tainly ; "  for  Abraham  came  out  of  a  very  high 
civilization.  I  have  in  my  possession  a  tablet 
from  Abraham's  land,  in  Abraham's  language, 
but  older  than  Abraham.  This  tablet  came  from 
the  Temple  of  Bel,  fifty  miles  south  of  Babylon. 
It  contains  in  Babylonian  cuneiform  charac- 
ters an  accounting  of  two  treasurers  by  the  name 
of  Nidup  and  Kipalne  for  receipts  and  expenditures 
for  the  Temple  of  Bel  for  one  year — of  course  not 
in  money,  because  there  was  no  money  then,  but  in 
kind  ;  and  on  the  side  it  says,  "  Balance  on  hand  " 
so  much,  signed  Nidup  and  Kipalne,  in  the  reign 
of  Gimil-Sin.  Gimil-Sin  reigned  2200  b.  c,  so  this 
tablet  is  over  four  thousand  years  old.  If  treas- 
urers gave  accountings  two  hundred  years  before 
Abraham  lived  in  Ur  of  Chaldees,  it  is  impossible 
that  so  wealthy  a  man  as  Abraham  should  not  be 
able  to  read  and  write.  This  sets  forth  a  civiliza- 
tion in  which  a  form  of  accounting  was  employed 
that  can  be  read  four  thousand  years  after  it  was 
written  as  readily  as  the  day  when  it  was  rendered. 
A  tablet  like  this  shows  that  much  of  modern  hos- 
tile Biblical  criticism  is  based  on  theories  and  not 
on  facts. 

This  third  act  of  the  Old  Testament  drama  I 
make  terminate  with  Kings,  because  between  Abra- 
ham and  Kings  God's  method  of  governing  His 
people    was    theocratic ;    He  governed  them  by 


38  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

patriarch,  by  prophet  and  by  judge.  Then  Israel 
swerved  aside,  saying,  "  Make  ns  a  king  to  judge 
us,  like  all  the  nations  "  ;  and  God  said  to  Samuel, 
"  They  have  not  rejected  thee,  but  they  have  re- 
jected me,  that  I  should  not  be  king  over  them." 
God  recognized  a  change  in  His  covenant  people, 
they  having  set  Him  aside,  and  having  introduced 
kings  after  the  manner  of  the  heathen  nations.  If 
you  can  find  a  better  period  at  which  to  terminate 
Act  III,  suit  yourselves,  only  be  able  to  give  some 
reason  for  it. 

Old  Testament  Drama^  Act  lY.  Kings  to  Cap- 
tivity. 

In  this  act  after  three  kings  had  ruled  over  the 
united  tribes,  the  nation  splits  in  two,  and  we  have 
ten  tribes  in  the  north  and  two  tribes  in  the  south. 
Taking  up  the  history  of  the  ten  tribes,  Jeroboam 
for  political  reasons  swerved  aside  from  God's  wor- 
ship and  established  calf  w^orship.  In  the  northern 
kingdom  from  start  to  finish  there  was  ofiicial 
calf  worship,  w^hich  degenerated  under  Ahab  to 
the  worship  of  Baal.  Jehu  worked  out  some  re- 
form ;  but  he  did  not  bring  the  people  back  to  the 
worship  of  Jehovah,  but  only  back  to  calf  worship. 
So  in  the  northern  kingdom  there  was  never  a 
single  sovereign  who  strove  to  lead  the  people  back 
to  Jehovah  worship  in  accordance  with  the  com- 
mand of  Moses. 

It  is  the  custom  of  some  people  to  say  that  the 
Hebrew  was  naturally  monotheistic.     I  deny  it. 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  39 

History  shows  that  they  were  naturally  polythe- 
istic, frequently  swerving  aside  from  monotheism. 
If  God  had  not  called  them  back  by  sending  them 
prophets,  Israel  would  have  plunged  over  the 
precipice  to  polytheism.  From  start  to  finish 
God's  effort  with  Israel  was  to  make  them  mon- 
otheistic. 

The  southern  kingdom  held  more  literally  to  the 
ordinances  of  God  as  given  to  Moses,  partly  because 
they  had  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  and  also  because 
they  had  quite  a  number  of  godly  kings,  such  as 
Hezekiah,  Josiah  and  Joash.  Yet  even  there  the 
tendency  to  polytheism  appeared  and  reappeared, 
beginning  with  Solomon  and  reaching  down  to 
Manasseh  who  took  the  ark  from  the  most  holy 
place  and  substituted  an  idol  in  its  place. 

In  due  time  came  the  march  of  the  Ten  Tribes 
into  captivity,  and  then  one  hundred  and  eighty 
years  afterwards  the  two  tribes  followed.  Oh, 
often  I  have  wished  that  they  had  had  moving 
picture  cameras  in  those  days  to  set  these  things 
before  us !  What  a  contrast  between  the  march 
out  of  Egypt  and  through  the  Ked  Sea  and  the 
song  of  Miriam,  when  the  horse  and  its  rider  were 
lost  in  the  sea — what  a  contrast  I  say  between  that 
march  and  the  march  of  Israel  out  of  the  land. 
What  a  contrast  between  the  march  across  the 
Eiver  Jordan  and  up  to  the  walls  of  Jericho,  and 
the  march  again  across  the  Jordan  with  the  clank 
of  chains,  with  lamentation  and  crying ;  the  inward 
triumphal  march  the  result  of  faith  and  godliness. 


40  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

the  outward  despairing  march  into  captivity  the 
result  of  sin. 

Old  Testament  Drama^  Act  Y.  The  Captivity 
and  the  Return. 

A  short  act  this,  only  about  seventy  years,  but 
most  significant.  For  when  God's  people  came 
back  to  their  land  from  captivity,  they  came  back 
changed.  Up  to  that  point  they  were  always  back- 
sliding to  polytheism,  but  in  captivity,  under 
polytheistic  rule,  God  cured  His  people  of  polythe- 
ism once  and  for  all.  He  said  He  would,  and  He 
did.  When  they  came  back,  monotheistic  they 
came,  and  from  that  day  to  this  monotheistic  has 
Israel  remained  in  spite  of  every  temptation  and 
unfortunate  environment  in  every  land  and  every 
clime.  I  know  of  no  section  of  Israel  from  the 
day  of  their  return  from  captivity  to  this  day  that 
has  abandoned  its  creed,  *'  Hear,  O  Israel,  the 
Lord  our  God  is  one  God."  Marvellous  were  the 
dealings,  therefore,  of  our  Heavenly  Father  with 
His  people,  so  to  weld  them  together  in  the  land 
of  their  first  captivity  into  national  unity  and  in 
the  land  of  their  second  captivity  into  loyalty  to 
one  God,  the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac  and  of 
Jacob. 

Then  the  curtain  falls,  and  for  four  hundred 
years  there  is  silence.  For  four  centuries  no 
prophet  speaks,  no  miracle  is  wrought,  no  super- 
natural sign  is  given  of  God's  watchfulness  over 
His  chosen.     What  happened  during  those  four 


im 


I.  Silver  Coin  of  Artaxerxes  III  of  Persia 

Obverse:     King    in     his     chariot.       Reverse:     Persian     Galley.      (Persian 
Period) 


2.  Silver  Coin  of  Alexander  the  Great 
Obverse:     Head    of    Hercules.      Reverse:    Jupiter    Enthroned. 
Period) 


(Greek 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  41 

hundred  years  ?  If  Nehemiah  had  come  back  in 
A.  D.  1  to  Jerusalem,  he  would  not  have  recognized 
it  as  the  same  Jerusalem  whose  walls  he  restored ; 
he  would  have  been  staggered.  "When  he  left, 
Aramaic  was  spoken  everywhere ;  now  it  is  Greek. 
When  he  left,  Jerusalem  hearkened  to  Persia  as 
the  centre  of  authority  and  power  in  the  far  East ; 
now  Jerusalem  hearkens  to  Kome  in  the  West. 
When  Nehemiah  left  there  were  no  synagogues ; 
now  the  land  is  full  of  synagogues. 

How  quickly  you  say  "  four  hundred  years,"  but 
remember  what  four  hundred  years  may  cover. 
Four  hundred  years  ago,  and  a  little  more,  the 
Mohammedans  had  taken  Constantinople  and  Eu- 
rope trembled ;  less  than  four  hundred  years  ago 
the  Turks  were  at  Vienna,  and  Europe  turned  pale ; 
a  little  more  than  four  hundred  years  ago  America 
was  not  discovered.  See  what  four  hundred  years 
may  mean.  In  the  beginning  of  this  four  hun- 
dred years  of  interregnum,  the  governmental 
power  in  Palestine  was  Persia ;  Persian  rule  was 
mild ;  if  the  taxes  were  paid  Persia  was  satisfied 
and  the  Jew  could  govern  himself,  under  his  own 
high  priest.  This  Persian  rule  came  to  a  sudden 
termination  in  330  b.  c.  when  Alexander  the  Great 
marched  with  thirty  thousand  Greek  soldiers,  and 
at  the  battle  of  Arbela,  at  one  fell  blow  over- 
threw the  Persian  Empire.  Then  the  Greek  period 
began. 

With  Alexander  came  Grecian  civilization,  lit- 
erature, philosophy  and  culture. 


42  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

The  Greek  period,  however,  was  not  a  bad  one 
for  the  Jew,  until  Antiochus  Epiphanes  came  to  the 
throne.  Up  to  that  time  they  had  been  allowed  to 
practice  their  own  religion,  but  when  Antiochus 
came  to  the  throne  he  made  up  his  mind  that 
Jewish  monotheism  should  come  to  a  close,  and  he 
thrust  into  the  Holy  of  Holies  a  statue  of  Jupiter, 
and  sacrificed  swine  in  the  temple. 

That  brings  us  to  the  Maccabean  revolt  and 
rule.  That  period  runs  until  a.  d.  40,  when  again 
the  governmental  power  changed,  and  from 
that  day  on  for  centuries  Palestine  was  gov- 
erned from  Eome.  Thus  you  have  the  four  periods 
which  fill  the  four  centuries  between  Malachi  and 
Matthew. 

The  New  Testament  drama  also  has  a  prelude. 
On  Bethlehem's  Plain  suddenly  the  angelic  mes- 
senger appears,  and  the  angelic  chorus  comes  down. 
Never  before  or  since  has  this  earth  been  blessed 
by  an  angelic  chorus.  The  words  of  that  chorus  we 
have,  but  the  music  is  not  given.  Oh,  that  we  had 
the  music,  that  we  might  try  to  sing  it.  Why  was 
the  music  not  given  ?  I  do  not  know,  but  possibly 
because  angelic  voices  are  capable  of  such  wondrous 
melody  as  is  not  vouchsafed  to  human  voices,  and 
though  we  have  the  words,  if  we  had  the  music 
possibly  we  could  do  nothing  with  it. 

This  angelic  chorus  with  its  glad  tidings  breaks 
out  over  Bethlehem's  Plain,  and  then  for  thirty 
years  again  silence.     Then  comes 


3-  Silver  Coin  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes 

Obverse:    Portrait    of   King.      Reverse:   Jupiter  Enthroned 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  43 

Wew  Testament  Drama,  Act  I,  From  John  to 
Jesus. 

This  act  stretches  from  John  to  Jesus,  that  is, 
from  the  beginning  of  John's  ministry  to  the  bap- 
tism of  Jesus  by  John  in  the  Jordan.  This  is  the 
shortest  of  all  the  acts,  lasting  only  for  six  months. 
During  this  act  John  is  the  main  actor.  A  fiery 
preacher  is  this  John,  coming  suddenly  out  of  the 
wilderness,  but  seeking  no  congregation  in  the 
cities.  He  had  no  problem  of  morning  service 
or  evening  service.  Wherever  he  preached  men 
flocked  to  hear  him.  There  was  no  forerunner  for 
him  in  the  way  of  a  modern  press  agent,  but  the 
fiery  ardour  of  this  preacher  rallied  throngs  around 
him. 

John's  message  in  this  brief  act  was  twofold; 
first,  Eepent ;  second,  Prepare — repent  of  your  past, 
prepare  for  your  future. 

In  this  connection  it  is  worth  our  while  to  notice 
that  this  John,  coming  out  of  the  wilderness,  when 
he  sees  Jesus  gives  utterance  to  two  apparently 
contradictory  statements  with  regard  to  Him.  One 
of  those  statements  is  "  Behold  the  Son  of  God." 
That  meant  power,  that  meant  triumph,  that  meant 
victory.  The  other  statement  is,  "  Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 
Lamb  of  God  meant  sacrifice,  humiliation,  rejec- 
tion, death.  How  could  the  same  person  be  the 
Son  of  God  and  the  Lamb  of  God  ?  How  could 
these  two  be  united  in  one  person  ?  Isaiah  taught 
the  same  thing,  however,  when  he  spoke  of  Him 


44  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

who  was  to  be  born,  "  And  his  name  shall  be 
called  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  God,  Father 
of  Eternity,  Prince  of  Peace  " ;  and  yet  he  also 
spoke  of  one  who  was  coming  who  was  to  be 
^'  despised  and  rejected  of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows, 
and  acquainted  with  grief  .  .  .  and  he  made 
his  grave  with  the  wicked,  and  with  the  rich  in 
his  death."  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  Father  of 
Eternity ;  humiliated,  rejected,  spit  upon,  killed — 
how  is  that  possible?  Still,  these  two  apparent 
contradictions  meet  in  Him  who  came  from  Naza- 
reth, who  was  the  Son  of  God  and  yet  the  Lamb 
of  God  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 

How  John  reached  this  truth  save  by  direct,  di- 
vine revelation,  I  know  not.  The  great  trouble 
with  the  apostles  afterwards  until  Pentecost  was 
that  while  they  accepted  the  statement  concerning 
the  Son  of  God,  the  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  they 
rejected  that  concerning  the  Man  of  Sorrow^s,  the 
one  who  made  His  grave  with  the  wicked  and  the 
rich  in  His  death. 

New  Testament  Drama ^  Act  II.  From  Jordan 
to  the  Mount  of  Olives.,  or  from  the  Bajptism  to  the 
Ascension. 

This  is  the  most  marvellous  of  all  these  acts  in 
the  Bible  dramas.  It  covers  only  three  years  and 
a  half,  being  the  second  shortest  of  these  acts,  yet 
in  this  act  we  see  the  fulfillment  of  much  Old  Tes- 
tament prophecy.  Genesis  iii.  15  says  that  the 
seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  head  of  the 


4-  Silver  Coin  of  Simon  Maccabaens 
(Maccabaean   Period) 


5.  Silver  Denarius  of  Tiberius  Caesar 

(Roman  Period.)     This  is  the  "Penny"  spoken  of  by  Christ 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  45 

serpent.  To  Abraham  the  promise  is  given,  "In 
thee  shall  all  the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed." 
Jacob  on  his  death-bed,  when  blessing  Judah,  says, 
"  The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  the 
ruler's  staff  from  between  his  feet,  until  Shiloh 
come ;  and  unto  him  shall  the  obedience  of  the 
people  be."  Malachi  says,  "The  Lord  will  sud- 
denly come  to  his  temple."  And  here  is  the  ful- 
fillment of  all  of  these  prophetic  utterances  of  the 
Old  Testament. 

How  clearly  did  these  prophets  understand  what 
they  were  uttering  ?  I  know  not.  But  this  I  know, 
that  they  saw  much  more  clearly  than  many  in 
our  age  think  they  saw.  How  much  did  Abraham 
understand  from  the  prophecy,  "  In  thee  shall  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed "  ?  I  do  not 
know,  but  Christ  said,  "  Your  Father  Abraham  re- 
joiced to  see  my  day,  and  he  saw  it  and  was  glad." 
Evidently  a  much  greater  understanding  was  vouch- 
safed to  Abraham  than  the  record  in  Genesis  would 
lead  us  to  suspect. 

In  this  second  act  of  the  New  Testament  we 
have  the  fulfillment  of  typology.  The  typology 
of  the  temple  and  the  service  in  the  temple  was 
intended  to  reveal,  vaguely,  perhaps,  but  adequately 
for  that  time,  the  great  redemption  God  was  to 
work  out  for  His  people .  Now  here  is  One  who 
comes,  not  with  the  blood  of  bulls  or  goats,  but  with 
His  own  blood,  to  make  atonement  for  the  sins  of 
men.  Here  we  have,  in  this  second  act  of  the 
New  Testament  drama.  Him  who   is  the  Great 


46  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

High  Priest — not  the  family  high  priest,  nor  the 
national  high  priest,  but  the  international  High 
Priest,  an  High  Priest  forever.  From  Aaron  down 
every  high  priest  died  and  was  buried  and  his  suc- 
cessor took  his  place.  But  from  now  on  all  high 
priests  are  abolished,  because  there  is  one  High  Priest 
who  liveth  forever  to  make  intercession  for  His 
people.  And  with  this  Great  High  Priest,  let  me 
say,  all  priesthood  is  forever  done  away.  Men  may 
call  themselves  priests,  but  there  is  no  priesthood  any 
longer  in  the  divine  economy.  There  is  one  High 
Priest,  and  all  believers  are  priests  unto  God.  There 
is  a  universal  priesthood,  but  for  a  human  high 
priest  there  is  no  longer  any  need  among  mankind, 
for  we  have  One  who  liveth  forever  at  the  right 
hand  of  God. 

Here,  then,  in  the  second  act,  we  have  the  fulfill- 
ment of  all  typology,  all  meeting  in  One  Person 
who  came  from  Nazareth.  Now  God  speaks  unto 
men  by  His  Son ;  there  is  no  longer  any  need  of 
even  a  Moses,  for  the  Son  has  come.  The  key  to 
the  book  of  Hebrews  is  this  one  word,  "better." 
Moses  good,  Christ  better;  Aaron  good,  Christ 
better ;  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats  good,  Christ's 
blood  better;  the  law  good,  Christ's  law  better; 
the  old  law,  acting  as  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  men 
to  Christ  good,  the  fulfillment  in  Christ,  better ;  the 
tabernacle,  the  only  building  on  earth  that  had  a 
divine  architect,  good,  but  that  for  which  the 
tabernacle  stood,  the  real  Holies  of  Holies  in 
Heaven,  better,   for  there  Christ  liveth  to  make 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  47 

atonement  by  His  precious  blood,  which  is  better 
than  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats.  So,  in  this 
marvellous  second  act,  we  have  a  vast  advance  on 
all  that  has  gone  before. 

Here,  briefly,  let  me  say  that  you  also  have  an 
inbreaking  of  divine  power  as  never  before.  It  is 
worth  your  while  to  realize  that  in  the  book  of 
Genesis  there  is  not  one  single  miracle  wrought  by 
the  hand  of  man.  Get  that  right,  because  some  of 
you  may  write  to  me  and  say,  "  Do  you  mean  to 
say  that  there  is  no  miracle  in  Genesis  ?  "  No,  I 
did  not  say  that ;  I  said  that  there  are  no  miracles 
wrought  by  the  hand  of  man  in  Genesis.  Moses 
is  the  first  man  who  wrought  any  miracle,  and  he 
wrought  many,  and  in  his  day  were  many  wrought 
directly  by  divine  power.  How  many  ?  We  will 
consider  that  in  the  chapter  upon  the  study 
of  the  Bible  in  spots.  But  however  many  they 
were,  they  were  surpassed  beyond  computation  in 
those  three  and  one-half  years.  There  were  more 
miracles  wrought  in  the  three  and  a  half  years 
of  the  second  act  of  the  New  Testament  drama 
than  in  all  the  four  thousand  preceding  years  put 
together. 

New  Testament  Drama ^  Act  III.  Pentecost  to  the 
Turning  to  the  Gentiles. 

Pentecost  meant  power.  No  Pentecost,  no  power. 
In  this  third  act  of  the  New  Testament  drama  there 
is  the  establishment  of  the  Jewish  and  afterwards 
of  the  Christian  Church.     Here  you  see  largely  the 


48  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

fulfillment  of  the  promise  of  the  power  of  the  keys. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  Jesus  gave  to  Peter  a  power 
He  did  not  give  to  any  other  apostle,  and  what  is 
the  use  of  denying  it  ?  The  Koman  Catholics  are 
right  in  regard  to  that  statement.  He  did  give 
Peter  the  power  of  the  keys,  and  that  is  illustrated 
when  Peter  opened  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  the 
door  of  the  church  to  3,000  Jewish  people.  It 
was  Peter  again  in  Caesar ea  who  swung  the  door 
open  to  the  Gentile  world,  allowing  the  Gentile 
world  to  march  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  without 
paying  any  attention  to  rite  and  ritual  and  Mosaic 
ordinance.  Those  were  two  stupendous  acts  on  the 
part  of  this  man,  and  explain  very  largely  the  power 
of  the  keys.  Where  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
makes  its  gigantic  mistake  is  in  maintaining  that 
Peter  had  the  right  to  pass  the  keys  to  his  suc- 
cessor, and  he  to  his,  and  he  to  his,  down  to  this 
last  man  who  was  elected  pope  lately.  I  find  no 
warrant  for  that  in  the  Bible.  Peter  opened  the 
door  to  the  Jewish  world,  he  opened  the  door  to 
the  Gentile  world,  and  dying  he  dropped  the  keys. 
In  this  act  we  see  the  beginning  of  the  triumph 
of  the  Gospel  through  the  power  of  the  indwelling 
Spirit  in  believers.  Here  is  recorded  the  descent  of 
the  Third  Person  in  the  Trinity  whose  presence  is 
universal.  That  was  a  greater  blessing  to  the 
Church  than  if  Jesus  had  tarried  here  in  the  flesh. 
You  remember  He  said,  "  It  is  expedient  for  me 
that  I  go  away."  They  thought,  "  It  is  disastrous 
if  you  go  away."     But  He  said,  "  It  is  expedient, 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  49 

for  when  I  go  the  Holy  Spirit  will  come,  and  he 
will  guide  you  in  all  truth."  So  here  you  see  a 
new  dispensation ;  the  Son  leaves  but  the  Holy 
Spirit  takes  His  place. 

New  Testament  Drama,  Act  lY.  The  Times  of 
the  Gentiles. 

When  the  Jews  refused  the  truth  of  this  Mes- 
siah, the  day  came  when  the  apostles  said,  "  See- 
ing you  judge  yourselves  unworthy  of  eternal  life, 
we  turn  to  the  Gentiles."  In  that  act  we  now  are. 
Oh,  what  a  journey  from  the  Old  Testament  drama 
Act  I  to  New  Testament  drama  Act  lY.  Now 
suddenly  we  are  actors  on  the  stage,  because  these 
are  the  times  of  the  Gentiles.  These  times  will 
last  until  the  veil  drops  from  the  eyes  of  Israel  and 
they  accept  Jesus  as  their  Messiah.  Christ  rec- 
ognized these  times  when  He  said,  "  Jerusalem 
shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles  until  the 
times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled."  Go  to  Jeru- 
salem and  see  who  treads  that  city  underfoot.  The 
Jew  has  been  trodden  upon  by  the  Roman,  by  the 
Saracen,  and  by  the  Turk,  and  in  his  own  city  the 
most  despised  man  is  the  descendant  of  Abraham. 
"Oh,  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  that  killeth  the 
prophets,  and  stoneth  them  which  are  sent  unto 
her,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children 
together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not !  Behold,  your 
house  is  left  unto  you  desolate."  Desolate  it  has 
been,  and  desolate  it  will  be  until  the  times  of  the 


50  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Gentiles  be  fulfilled.  These  times,  as  I  have  said 
in  my  judgment,  will  last  until  the  veil  is  lifted 
from  the  eyes  of  Israel ;  for,  as  St.  Paul  says  in 
Romans,  "  A  hardening  in  part  hath  befallen  Israel, 
until  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in." 

In  that  solemn  act  we  participate,  and  thus  are 
co-workers  with  God. 

New  Testament  Drama^  Act  V.  The  Lifting  of 
the  Veil. 

When,  we  do  not  know  ;  how,  we  do  not  know. 
Will  it  come  ?  Surely.  God  has  not  rejected  His 
people.  He  is  holding  them  in  suspense,  so  to 
speak,  by  reason  of  their  willful  blindness.  They 
cried,  "  We  have  no  king  but  Caesar ; "  and  no  kings 
but  Cassars  and  Czars  and  Sultans  have  they  had 
until  to-day.  That  was  their  national  blindness. 
But  the  day  is  coming  when  they  will  see,  and 
Israel  will  understand  that  Mary's  Son  is  truly  the 
Son  of  David,  and  that  in  Him  meet  all  the 
prophecies.  Then  Israel  will  look  upon  Him  as  its 
own  Messiah,  and  crown  Him  Lord  of  all. 

That  will  be  a  mighty  act.  Israel  in  that  act 
shall  turn  again  towards  Palestine,  and  that  land 
and  that  Bible,  married,  so  to  speak,  by  God,  but 
divorced  by  reason  of  Israel's  sin,  shall  come  to- 
gether again,  and  God's  ancient  people  shall  occupy 
their  ancient  land. 

I  do  not  believe  that  that  will  come  at  all 
through  any  Zionistic  movement,  because  that 
movement  is  not  saturated  with  the  Messianic  spirit. 


The  Two  Great  Bible  Dramas  51 

I  believe  that  when  the  veil  is  lifted  and  Israel 
begins  to  turn  towards  the  Land  of  Promise,  it  will 
be  through  some  mysterious  impulse,  as  incompre- 
hensible as  the  push  of  the  birds  in  spring  from  the 
tropics  north,  and  the  push  of  the  birds  again  in  the 
fall  from  the  north  down  to  the  tropics.  And  so 
when  Israel's  eyes  are  opened,  irresistibly  from 
Eussia  and  Germany  and  France  and  England  and 
the  United  States,  Israel  will  be  pushed  to  the  land 
of  their  fathers.  Men  will  try  to  explain  this  push, 
but  there  is  only  one  explanation,  namely,  that 
Israel  has  seen,  that  her  eyes  have  been  opened, 
that  now  she  understands  and  at  last  accepts  Jesus 
as  her  King. 

This  fifth  act  of  the  IS'ew  Testament  drama  is 
going  to  give  boundless  blessings  to  Israel.  But  not 
to  Israel  only  ;  for,  as  St.  Paul  says,  if  the  cast- 
ing away  of  Israel  brought  blessings  to  the  Gentile 
world,  what  will  the  acceptance  by  Israel  of  David's 
Son  as  the  Messiah  bring  ?  The  blessings  given  to 
Israel  will  be  so  great  that  they  will  pour  over  to 
the  Gentile  world,  and  will  be  to  the  Gentile  world 
itself  as  life  from  the  dead.  Then  will  the  windows 
of  Heaven  be  opened,  and  there  will  pour  out  on  the 
world  blessings  so  great  that  there  will  not  be  room 
to  receive  them. 

See,  friends,  I  have  tried  to  set  before  you 
briefly  a  series  of  acts  in  these  great  dramas  of 
God's  dealings  with  the  children  of  men,  and  have 
shown  that  for  the  believer  always  the  best  is  yet 
to  come.     The  golden  day  of  humanity  has  not 


52  God*s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

arrived,  it  is  not  in  the  past,  it  is  in  the  future ; 
and  that  golden  day  will  be  hastened  just  in  pro- 
portion as  the  believing  Church  of  God  lives  up  to 
the  measure  of  its  privilege  in  communion  with 
and  under  the  guidance  of  the  Divine  Spirit.  Then 
comes  that  glorious  end,  when  He  shall  return 
whose  right  it  is  to  rule,  and  when  this  sin-cursed 
world  that  saw  Him  tread  its  lanes  in  discredit, 
in  dejection,  in  poverty  and  in  pain  and  woe,  shall 
see  Him  come  again  a  second  time  without  sin  unto 
salvation  and  ten  thousand  angels  with  Him.  That 
ushers  in  the  end  when  righteousness  reigns  and 
God  is  honoured  and  the  world  unites  in  singing 

*'  All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  Name, 
Let  angels  prostrate  fall, 
Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem, 
And  crown  Him  Lord  of  all." 


Ill 

THE  STUDY  OF  THE  BIBLE  IN  SPOTS 

OFTENTIMES  at  conventions  you  will  hear 
ministers  urging  teachers  to  know  the 
whole  Bible.  That  is  a  difficult  proposi- 
tion. Very  few  ministers  know  the  whole  Bible. 
Most  ministers  preach  chiefly  from  certain  favourite 
books  in  the  Bible  and  rarely  go  outside  of  their 
line.  The  only  two  ministers  I  have  personally 
known  who  spread  themselves  well-nigh  over  the 
whole  Bible  in  their  sermons  were  Howard  Crosby, 
of  New  York  City,  and  Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon, 
of  London.  The  fact  is  that  there  is  crass  igno- 
rance of  the  Bible  even  among  ministers.  Indeed, 
in  New  York  at  one  time  I  was  occupying  the 
pulpit  of  a  large  church  to  speak  on  City  Missions. 
The  minister  asked  me  what  I  would  like  to  have 
read,  and  I  replied,  the  fourth  chapter  of  Jonah. 
When  he  got  up  to  read,  he  fussed  around,  and 
then  read  a  Psalm.  I  thought  that  was  prelimi- 
nary, and  that  Jonah  would  come  next,  but  Jonah 
did  not  arrive.  When  he  sat  down  he  whispered 
to  me :  "  To  tell  the  truth,  I  couldn't  find  it." 
"  Tell  it  not  in  Gath ;  publish  it  not  in  the  streets 
of  Askelon ;  lest  the  daughters  of  the  Philistines 
rejoice,"  that  a  minister  in  New  York  should  not 
know  where  Jonah  is  in  the  Bible. 

53 


54  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Now  it  is  true  that  the  average  teacher  cannot 
be  familiar  with  all  portions  of  the  Bible,  nor  is  it 
necessary,  because,  although  the  Bible  is  inspired, 
not  all  books  in  the  Bible  are  equally  important. 
If  I  must  lose  Isaiah  or  Zechariah,  there  is  no 
question  which  I  shall  retain.  If  I  must  lose  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  or  the  third  Epistle  of  John, 
there  is  no  question  which  I  shall  lose.  Not  all 
portions  of  the  Bible,  therefore,  are  equally  im- 
portant. 

We  must,  then,  focus  our  attention  and  the  atten- 
tion of  those  to  whom  we  minister  in  church  and 
Sunday-school  upon  those  spots  in  the  Book  that 
are  of  superlative  importance.  Those  having  been 
in  some  sense  mastered,  we  can  pass  on  to  other 
enlightening  and  charming  parts  of  the  Word  of  God. 
But  until  those  spots  of  supreme  importance  have 
been  thoroughly  assimilated,  it  is  foolish  to  pass  on 
to  the  less  important  portions  of  this  divine  Word. 

The  books  of  the  Bible  cover  Bible  times.  Ac- 
cording to  Ussher's  Chronology  (which  is  not 
accurate,  we  all  admit),  that  means  forty-one 
centuries.  I  want,  for  the  sake  of  absolute  sim- 
plicity, to  divide  those  forty-one  centuries  chrono- 
logically, so  as  to  picture  the  thing  to  your  minds. 

AJENAM        S|ZC 

III  I         I         I  I    I         I       I 

Names: — Adam,  Jared,  Enoch,  Noah,  Abraham, 
Moses,  Solomon,  Elijah,  Elisha,  Zerub- 
babel,  Christ. 


The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots  ^S 

Here  at  the  beginning  of  the  above  diagram  we 
have  Adam  ;  at  the  close  we  have  Christ.  Bisect 
those  four  thousand  years  (and  make  all  the 
divisions  biographical,  since  the  Bible  is  largely 
biographical),  and  you  have  here,  2,000  years 
after  Adam  and  2,000  years  before  Christ,  the 
Father  of  the  Faithful,  Abraham.  Bisect  each  of 
those  periods,  and  you  have  the  name  of  a  man 
who  was  not,  for  God  took  him,  Enoch,  and  the 
name  of  Solomon.  Adam  to  Enoch,  1,000  years ; 
Enoch  to  Abraham,  1,000 ;  Abraham  to  Solomon, 
1,000.  Now  you  are  beginning  to  get  the  chrono- 
logical points  of  the  compass  a  little.  Bisect  once 
more  into  periods  of  600  years  each,  and  you  have 
next  to  Adam  a  name  that  is  not  very  w^ell  known, 
Jared,  which  is  just  given  as  a  landmark.  Next 
after  Enoch  is  the  name  of  the  first  great  navigator, 
Noah.  Next  to  Abraham  is  the  name  of  the  great 
lawgiver,  Moses ;  then  the  name  of  the  builder  of 
the  first  temple,  Solomon  ;  then  Elijah  and  Elisha  ; 
then  that  of  the  builder  of  the  second  temple,  Zerub- 
babel.  Adam  to  Jared,  500  ;  Jared  to  Enoch,  500 ; 
Enoch  to  Noah,  500 ;  Noah  to  Abraham,  500 ; 
Abraham  to  Moses,  500  ;  Moses  to  Solomon,  500 ; 
Solomon  to  Zerubbabel,  500,  Zerubbabel  to  Christ, 
500. 

The  advantage  of  such  a  diagram  as  this  to  you 
is  that  it  clarifies  Bible  chronology  and  enables  you 
to  locate  the  periods  of  Scripture  you  are  studying. 
For  example :  What  are  you  reading  ?  Well,  you 
are  reading  Samuel.     Yery  well,   then  it  must  be 


56  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

between  Moses  and  Solomon.  What  is  the  study? 
Nehemiah.  Then  you  are  evidently  somewhere 
after  Zerubbabel  and  before  Christ. 

Now,  when  we  come  to  the  study  of  Scripture 
covering  these  Bible  times,  there  are  some  things 
we  notice  at  once.  One  is  that  this  history  is  writ- 
ten not  like  any  other  history  that  has  ever  been 
put  on  paper.  We  notice  that  there  are  certain 
points  in  the  history  that  are  emphasized,  where  the 
narrative  amplifies,  and  there  are  certain  other  parts 
where  the  narrative  contracts,  and  this  in  a  very 
surprising  way.  Eleven  chapters  in  Genesis  cover, 
according  to  Ussher's  Chronology,  2,000  years,  or 
one-half  the  period  covered  by  all  Bible  times. 
This  is  rather  surprising.  Then  you  have  thirty- 
nine  chapters  in  Genesis  covering  437  years.  Why  ? 
There  must  be  some  reason.  Take  Exodus;  the 
first  chapter  covers  a  minimum  of  215  years  ;  chap- 
ter two  covers  eighty  years  of  Moses'  life :  forty 
years  in  court,  forty  years  in  the  Wilderness.  Then 
the  rest  of  the  Pentateuch,  or  136  chapters,  cover 
only  forty  years.  Why  ?  There  is  some  reason  for 
that.  This  is  not  a  history  written  in  a  haphazard 
way  ;  these  writers  were  definitely  guided ;  besides 
which,  they  had  common  sense.  There  must  be, 
therefore,  some  underlying  cause  for  the  leaping 
over  of  2,000  years  so  swiftly  and  for  the  dwelling 
on  forty  years  at  such  great  length. 

Take  the  New  Testament :  four  chapters  are  given 
to  thirty  years  of  Christ's  life,  two  in  Matthew  and 
two  in  Luke.     Then  eighty-five  chapters  in  the  Gos- 


The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots  57 

pels  are  given  to  three  and  a  half  years,  and  of  those 
eighty-five  chapters  twenty-seven  chapters  are  given 
to  eight  days.  That  is  staggering.  What  did  these 
four  Evangelists  mean  ?  There  must  be  some  reason 
for  this  singular  division  of  the  historical  parts  of  the 
Word. 

Again,  take  into  consideration  one  more  fact, 
which  is  very  patent  in  the  whole  of  the  Word. 
That  fact  is  this :  the  miraculous  in  the  Old  and  in 
the  New  Testament  is  very  unevenly  divided,  even 
as  is  the  narrative  unevenly  amplified.  There  are 
those  who  think  that  Bible  times  are  as  full  of  mira- 
cles as  a  pincushion  is  full  of  pins.  That  is  not  so. 
There  are  times  in  the  Bible  when  miracles  are  mul- 
tiplied ;  there  are  other  times  in  the  Bible  when 
there  are  no  miracles.  You  will  look  in  vain  in 
Ezra's  and  Nehemiah's  times  for  miracles.  In 
Genesis  you  will  look  in  vain  for  one  miracle 
wrought  hy  the  hand  of  man.  You  will  find  in  all 
of  Genesis  not  as  much  as  one  miracle  a  century. 
This  is  rather  surprising.  There  are  other  times, 
however,  when  miracles  are  poured  out  in  a  wondrous 
profusion. 

Now,  if  my  study  has  led  me  aright,  I  think  it 
will  prove  true  that  wherever  in  the  Bible  the  nar- 
rative amplifies,  and  at  the  same  time  miracles  mul- 
tiply, there  you  have  an  indication  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  emjphasizing  that  time  and  the  teaching 
contained  in  that  jportion  of  the  Word.  Let  us  look 
at  it  and  see. 

We  have  seen  the  condensation  in  the  book  of 


58  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Genesis  where  eleven  chapters  cover  2,000  years. 
In  that  period  there  is  far  from  one  miracle  a  cen- 
tury. When,  however,  we  come  to  the  Patriarchal 
Period  where,  as  we  see,  the  whole  balance  of 
Genesis,  thirty -nine  chapters,  covers  the  lives  of  four 
men,  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob  and  Joseph,  all  of  a 
sudden  miracles  begin  to  multiply.  Heaven  and 
earth  begin  to  have  frequent  communication.  There 
are  more  miracles  in  the  Patriarchal  Period  than  in 
all  the  previous  record  put  together,  and  a  greater 
amplification  of  the  narrative.  That  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  the  Patriarchal  Period  is  one  that  we 
ought  to  know,  one  of  the  spots  where  we  are  to 
sink  our  wells  deep  to  get  living  water.  That,  I 
believe,  is  so,  because  God  now  was  founding  the 
covenant  people.  In  the  Patriarchal  Period  God 
was  beginning  the  consolidation  of  that  nation 
through  whom  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  to 
be  blessed. 

Where  does  the  narrative  amplify  again  ?  In  the 
Mosaic  Period.  Where  do  the  miracles  multiply 
again  ?  In  the  same  period.  (During  the  whole 
captivit}^  in  Egypt  there  is  no  record  of  any  miracle 
until  Moses  comes.)  Thus  in  the  Mosaic  Period 
suddenly  the  miracles  multiply,  while  the  narrative 
amplifies  very  greatly. 

How  many  miracles  were  there  in  the  forty  years 
of  the  Mosaic  Period  ?  I  do  not  know.  But  during 
all  of  the  time  they  were  wandering  in  the  desert, 
there  were  six  miracles  a  week,  for  every  day  the 
manna  fell  afresh  except  on  the  Sabbath.    Multiply 


The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots  59 

forty  by  three  hundred  and  fifteen  and  you  will  be- 
gin to  see  how  the  miracles  multiply. 

Here,  then,  our  two  signs  coincide — broader  nar- 
rative, more  miracles.  Was  that  an  important 
period  ?  Surely,  because  during  that  period  God 
was  transplanting  a  nation,  was  issuing  a  legisla- 
tion, was  giving  a  typology.  All  of  that  was 
packed  into  the  Mosaic  Period,  and  therefore  we,  as 
teachers,  ought  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the 
Mosaic  Period  and  ought  to  make  our  classes  thor- 
oughly versed  in  the  annals  of  Mosaic  times,  which, 
after  all,  were  only  forty  years. 

The  narrative  amplifies  again,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  miracles  multiply,  when  we  come  down  to 
the  period  of  the  two  great  prophets  of  the  north- 
ern kingdom,  namely:  Elijah  and  Elisha.  "What 
was  there  very  important  in  this  period?  This, 
that  then  God  was  trying  His  utmost  to  win  back 
the  ten  tribes  to  loyalty  to  Jehovah,  and  was  send- 
ing them  two  of  the  greatest  prophets  that  He  might 
win  them  back  to  allegiance  to  the  God  of  their 
fathers.  This  effort  was  a  failure,  because  man 
would  not ;  but  Jehovah  did  His  best  and  man's 
free  will  wrecked  Jehovah's  plan. 

After  that  there  is  very  little  amplification  of 
narrative  and  multiplication  of  miracles  simultane- 
ously until  you  come  down  to  the  Messianic  Period. 
Then,  after  four  centuries  of  silence,  all  of  a  sudden 
the  narrative  amplifies  as  never  before.  Four  books 
are  given  now  practically  to  three  and  one-half  years 
of  history.     In  the  Mosaic  Period  four  books  were 


6o  God^s  Book  and  God^s  Boy 

given  to  forty  years  of  history  ;  but  here  we  have 
only  three  and  one-half  years  covered  by  four  books. 
Here,  also,  we  find  the  other  sign,  marking  the  im- 
portance of  this  period,  namely  :  the  unprecedented 
multiplication  of  the  miraculous.  Now,  as  never 
before,  Heaven  descends  to  earth  and  divine  power 
breaks  in,  not  contravening  any  laws  of  nature,  but 
using  all  God's  laws  in  nature,  which  are  multitudi- 
nous, to  subserve  a  divine  purpose.  And  this  is  what 
one  would  naturally  expect.  If  Moses,  merely  hu- 
man as  he  was,  was  given  this  divine  power  of 
miraculous  activity,  what  shall  we  expect  when  He 
comes  who  is  superhuman  ?  If  sitting  down  to  a 
piano  I  undertake  to  play  a  simple  psalm  tune,  and 
if  I  announce  to  you  that  I  am  Paderewski,  and 
yet  make  half  a  dozen  mistakes  in  a  simple  melody, 
you  might  be  too  courteous  to  say  that  I  am  a  liar, 
but  in  your  heart  you  would  say,  "  That  man's  name 
is  Ananias."  When  Paderewski  sits  down  to  a 
piano,  you  expect  to  hear  an  artist,  and  any  man 
who  blunders  and  strikes  false  notes  proves  himself 
not  to  be  Paderewski.  Whatever  Moses  may  do, 
Christ  is  better  and  greater,  and  we  expect  a  greater 
outburst  of  the  superhuman,  of  the  Divine,  and  that 
we  find  in  the  life  of  this  One  who  was  announced 
by  the  angels  and  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

Now  in  the  Messianic  Period  miracles  multiply 
and  the  narrative  amplifies  at  the  same  time  in  un- 
precedented measure.  How  many  miracles  were 
there  in  those  three  and  one-half  years  ?  There  is 
no  counting.     There  were,  in  my  judgment,  single 


The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots  6l 

days  when  more  miracles  were  wrought  by  Christ 
than  in  any  one  year,  in  any  one  ten  years,  of  Bible 
history  preceding  that  time.  For  there  were  days 
when  they  brought  to  Him  all  the  sick  in  the  vi- 
cinity and  the  record  is  that  He  healed  them  all. 
Imagine  that  Sabbath  day  in  Capernaum,  which  has 
been  so  often  brilliantly  set  forth  by  commentators. 
In  the  morning  of  that  day  there  was  a  demoniac 
in  the  synagogue  and  the  demon  was  exorcised.  In 
the  afternoon,  Peter's  wife's  mother  lay  sick  of  a  high 
fever,  and  was  healed  perfectly.  And  at  even  when 
the  sun  did  set  they  brought  to  Him  all  in  Ca- 
pernaum that  were  sick,  and  they  gathered  in  front 
of  Peter's  house.  Oh,  for  a  moving  picture  camera ; 
oh,  for  some  vivid  setting  forth  of  that  wondrous 
scene  in  the  courtyard  outside  of  Peter's  house.  See 
the  weary,  woebegone  multitude  waiting ;  the  door 
opens  and  He  appears  and  stands  and  looks  at  them. 
Every  eye  is  fastened  on  Him,  and  many  hands  are 
lifted  in  mute  appeal.  What  a  sea  of  woe  and  w^ant 
and  misery  and  despair  it  is !  Passing  down  through 
that  crowd,  He  takes  a  child  from  its  mother's  arms, 
she,  perhaps,  a  widow.  He  lays  His  hand  on  the 
child.  Oh,  look  at  the  mother's  face !  the  child  is 
healed,  and  the  mother  takes  the  child  back,  as  well 
as  ever.  He  touches  the  eyes  of  a  blind  man  and  he 
sees.  And  so  He  goes  down  into  that  crowd, 
speaking  and  touching.  Before  Him  is  a  sea  of 
woe,  behind  Him  a  scene  of  triumph  and  rejoicing, 
until  He  gets  to  the  end  of  that  crowd,  and  there  is 
not  one  person  who  says,  *'  Oh,  my  head ;  oh,  my 


62  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

head,"  nor  one  woman  who  looks  at  her  child  and 
says,  "  See  my  poor  child."  Why,  there  were 
doubtless  many  days  in  the  life  of  the  Master  when 
miracles  multiplied  more  than  in  years  before.  It 
is  perfectly  amazing. 

Bear  in  mind  that  the^e  healings  were  complete 
and  instantaneous,  for  in  only  one  case  is  there  a 
record  of  a  person  who  was  diseased  who  had  to  be 
touched  a  second  time.  Once  He  touched  a  blind 
man  and  he  looked  up  and  said,  "I  see  men  as 
trees  walking,"  and  then  it  required  a  second  touch 
and  he  saw  all  things  clearly.  Why  was  the  second 
touch  needed  that  time  ?  I  cannot  tell.  Possibly 
because  of  the  man's  lack  of  faith. 

Remember,  no  healed  person  ever  said,  "  Thank 
you,  I  feel  better;  I  will  come  to-morrow  and 
maybe  you  can  touch  me  again."  This  moment  he 
was  deathly  sick;  the  next  moment  boundingly 
well.  That  is  the  difference  between  modern  heal- 
ing called  faith  healing  and  the  Christian  Science 
healing  of  our  day,  and  Christ's  healing.  There 
was  no  disease  He  could  not  heal  instantly,  and  all 
of  this  healing  was  without  money  and  without 
price. 

He  healed  the  incurables.  Ten  lepers,  incurable, 
cried,  "  Have  mercy  upon  us,"  and  He  sends  them 
away  saying,  "  Go  show  yourselves  to  the  priests." 
Not  one  of  them  was  cleansed  when  he  started,  but 
at  some  point  on  the  road,  I  know  not  where,  some 
one  said,  "Why,  the  spot  is  gone"— "Why,  your 
face  is  clean."     What  amazement  as  they  looked 


The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots  63 

at  each  other  and  saw  complete  renovation  !  Nine 
of  them  rushed  off  and  have  never  been  heard  of 
since.  Only  one  of  them  came  back  to  praise  Him. 
And  that  is  one  of  the  bitter  things  of  the  Master's 
experience,  for  with  infinite  sadness  He  says,  "  Were 
there  not  ten  that  were  cleansed  ?  Where,  then, 
are  the  nine  ?  These  are  not  found  to  give  glory 
to  God  save  this  stranger." 

He  healed  the  demoniac.  In  our  day  there  is 
a  large  school  of  those,  many  professing  to  be 
orthodox,  who  deny  demoniac  possession,  and  there- 
fore deny  demoniac  healing.  I  am  one  of  those 
who  believe  in  both,  and  I  shall  now  give  you 
briefly  the  reasons  which  make  me  believe  in  the 
genuineness  of  demoniac  possession  in  Christ's  day 
and  the  truthfulness  of  the  record  as  it  stands  in 
the  four  Gospels. 

Those  who  deny  demoniac  possession  say  that  the 
difficulty  with  the  patient  was  catalepsy,  or  epilepsy, 
or  some  form  of  hysteria.  Some  few  say  that  it  was 
a  form  of  insanity.  To  those  I  reply  that  the  evan- 
gelists always  make  clear  the  distinction  between 
all  manner  of  disease  and  those  who  were  possessed 
of  devils,  and,  in  one  case,  between  all  manner  of 
disease  and  the  lunatic.  Mark  this,  however,  that 
every  sick  person  in  Christ's  day  was  supremely 
anxious  to  be  healed,  so  that  they  trod  one  upon 
another  and  people  were  knocked  down  in  the 
effort  to  get  to  the  healer.  In  one  case  they  broke 
open  the  roof,  you  remember,  to  get  a  man  down 
to  Him.     But  not  one  single  demoniac  ever  wanted 


64  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

to  he  healed ;  every  one  resisted,  excepting  possibly 
the  boy  whose  father  brought  him,  and  of  him  it  is 
not  said  that  he  wanted  to  be  healed,  nor  is  it  said 
that  he  resisted.  But  the  uniform  cry  was,  "  Let 
us  alone ;  what  have  we  to  do  with  thee ;  art  thou 
come  to  torment  us  before  the  time  ?  "  That  is  not 
the  cry  you  would  expect  from  the  epileptic,  or  the 
cataleptic,  or  the  hysterical  person.  There  is  some- 
thing peculiar  about  these  demoniac  cases  as  the 
record  is  given  to  us. 

In  the  next  place,  not  one  single  person  healed, 
as  far  as  the  record  goes,  ever  recognized  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  Son  of  God.  But  there  is  not  any 
demoniac  whose  record  is  given  at  all  in  full  who  did 
not  recognize  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God.  The 
Gadarene  said,  "  I  know  who  thou  art,  the  Son  of 
God ;  art  thou  come  hither  to  torment  us  before 
the  time  ?  "  That  is  most  striking ;  that  does  away 
with  any  explanation  given  that  these  were  epileptic 
or  cataleptic  persons,  or  even  insane  persons.  It 
chimes  directly  with  the  Scripture  record.  In  one 
case  it  says,  "  He  cast  out  many  devils  and  he 
suffered  them  not  to  speak  for  they  knew  him.'''*  If 
it  was  real  demoniac  possession,  there  was  good 
reason  why  they  should  know  Him,  because,  "  He 
came  that  he  might  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil,"  and  that  is  why  they  cried  out,  "  Art  thou 
come  hither  to  torment  us  before  the  time  ?  "  It 
all  hangs  together  if  you  accept  the  record ;  it  breaks 
in  pieces  if  you  try  to  explain  the  record  away. 

Furthermore,  Christ  Himself  never  handled  any 


The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots  65 

form  of  disease  as  though  it  were  demoniac  posses- 
sion. He  never  said  to  any  fever-stricken  patient, 
"  Come  out  of  him,  thou  spirit  "  ;  but  to  demoniacs 
He  said,  "  Come  out."  The  father  said  of  his  boy, 
"He  is  a  lunatic."  Christ  never  endorsed  that, 
but  He  spoke  to  the  evil  spirit  in  the  boy  and  cast 
him  out.  This  is  an  indication  that  this  claim  of 
demoniac  possession  is  based  on  absolute  facts  which 
cannot  be  explained  away  without  tearing  the 
narrative  to  tatters. 

This  sublime,  miraculous  power  of  the  Master 
was  so  overwhelming  that  even  His  bitterest  enemies 
never  denied  it.  They  never  said  that  He  had  not 
power  over  all  manner  of  malady.  What  they  did 
say  was,  "  He  casteth  out  devils  by  Beelzebub,  the 
prince  of  devils."  Instead  of  saying  that  the 
miracles  were  not  genuine,  they  said,  "Genuine 
they  are,  but  wrought  by  the  devil's  power."  That 
is  when  He  spoke  His  warning  about  the  un- 
pardonable sin  of  ascribing  to  the  Holy  Spirit  a 
devilish  influence. 

I  have  sometimes  wondered  how  we  could  pos- 
sibly illustrate  this  superfluity  of  healing  power  in 
the  Master.  Of  course,  we  at  once  say,  "  He  was 
Divine  as  well  as  human,  and  therefore  divine 
works  showed  themselves  forth  in  Him."  I  like 
sometimes,  however,  if  I  can,  to  illustrate,  so  that 
common  people  may  be  helped,  this  superfluity  of 
power  possessed  by  Christ.  It  was  so  great  that  it 
flowed  sometimes  when  He  touched  a  person,  while 
at  other  times  He  did  not  touch  the  patient,  but 


66  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

simply  spoke  to  him ;  sometimes  He  did  not  even 
see  the  patient,  as  in  the  case  of  the  ruler's  son  in 
Capernaum,  or  as  in  the  case  of  the  Syrophenician 
woman  whose  daughter  He  never  saw.  His  ways 
of  working  were  various,  because  His  superfluity  of 
power  was  overwhelming.  Sometimes  I  have 
thought  this  illustration  might  help  to  make  us 
understand  His  wonderful  miracle-working  power. 
Some  years  ago  a  physician  in  New  York,  who 
is  making  use  largely  of  electricity  along  therapeutic 
lines,  knowing  I  was  interested  in  scientific  things, 
said,  "  Come  up  to  my  office  and  I  will  show  you 
some  queer  things."  Up  I  went.  He  set  me  down 
in  an  insulated  chair,  and  then  he  turned  three 
hundred  thousand  volts  of  static  electricity  through 
my  body.  The  moment  that  current  was  turned 
on  I  knew  that  I  was  surcharged  with  power.  He 
then  closed  the  shutters,  took  an  electric  bulb  and 
put  it  in  my  hands.  Immediately  the  room  was 
illuminated  through  the  power  streaming  through 
me  and  changing  itself  into  light.  There  was  a 
machine  standing  in  the  corner  of  the  room  ;  he 
gave  me  a  chain  attached  to  the  machine  ;  the 
moment  I  held  the  chain  the  machine  began  to  run 
furiously  through  the  power  streaming  through 
me.  He  hung  over  my  head  a  crown  of  metal 
hung  by  a  chain.  Instantly  I  felt  as  if  ice-water 
were  being  poured  over  my  head,  which  was  the 
result  of  the  electric  current  streaming  out.  He 
said  to  me,  "  I  can  stop  any  pain  w^hatsoever  in- 
stantly, but  I  cannot  keep  it  stopped."    He  said. 


The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots  67 

"  When  these  three  hundred  thousand  volts  go 
through  a  man,  toothache,  headache,  neuralgia, 
neuritis  will  stop  instantly  ;  but  when  the  power  is 
withdrawn,  they  return." 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  this  might  illus- 
trate the  superabundant  power  of  the  Master. 
When  He  touched,  the  power  leaped.  He  knew  it, 
and  they  knew  it.  One  time  in  the  crowd,  you  re- 
member, a  woman  got  behind  Him,  bowed  with  the 
spirit  of  her  infirmity,  and  touched  the  hem  of  His 
garment.  Instantly  she  knew  something  had  hap- 
pened, and  He  knew  that  something  had  happened, 
though  He  did  not  see  her.  When  that  physician 
came  near  to  me,  as  near  as  that  (indicating),  with 
his  finger,  a  spark  flew  from  me  to  him,  and  I  knew 
that  it  had  flown  though  I  could  not  see  it,  and  he 
knew  it  had  come  to  him  though  his  eyes  were  shut. 
So  with  Jesus ;  when  I  say  a  spark — do  not  mis- 
understand— when  whatever  it  was  leaped  from 
Him  to  the  woman,  instantly  He  knew  it  and  said, 
"  Who  touched  me  ?  "  A  poor  disciple  said,  in  his 
ignorance,  "  The  multitude  thronged  thee,  and  saith 
thou  *  Who  touched  me  ?  '  "  But  there  was  crowd- 
ing and  crowding.  When  there  was  no  disease, 
there  was  no  spark ;  when  disease  was  present,  a 
spark  flew. 

So,  then,  our  point  is  this :  that  in  the  study  of 
the  Word  for  ourselves,  and  in  the  leading  of  others 
into  the  study  of  the  Word,  we  must  go  after  those 
important  points  where  the  divine  emphasis  has 
been  placed,  where  great  revelations  have  been 


68  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

made,  where  startling  truths  have  been  revealed, 
and  where  power  unseen  breaks  in  on  the  scene  and 
the  Divine  manifests  itself  incontrovertibly  in  the 
presence  of  the  human.  Then,  having  done  that, 
we  can  lead  our  scholars  further  on. 

Doubtless  these  four  periods,  the  Patriarchal,  the 
Mosaic,  that  of  the  two  prophets  of  the  northern 
kingdom,  and  the  Messianic,  are  the  most  important. 
Those  are  the  places  where  we  can  lead  our  flocks, 
where  they  can  feed  on  nourishment  beneficial  to 
them.  Thus,  as  the  years  go  by  in  our  ministry, 
our  people  shall  know  the  Word  and  always  shall 
hark  back  to  the  law  and  the  testimony. 

Briefly,  one  thing  more.  You  remember  what  I 
said  about  these  twenty-seven  chapters  in  the 
Gospels  dealing  with  only  eight  days.  "Why  that 
enormous  amplification  there  ?  Because  those  eight 
days  from  Palm  Sunday  to  Kesurrection  Sunday 
deal  with  the  very  heart  of  the  Gospels.  There  is 
where  the  Son  of  God  makes  atonement  for  the 
sins  of  the  world.  There  is  where  He  Himself 
bears  our  sins  in  His  own  body  up  to  the  tree. 
There  is  where  Isaiah  fifty- three  is  fulfilled, 
and  there  is  where  the  dead,  sinful  world  is 
ransomed,  and  He  who  is  lifted  up  begins  to  draw 
all  men  unto  Him.  Therefore,  that  being  the 
supremely  crucial  period  of  all,  we  have  twenty- 
seven  chapters  to  elaborate  the  experiences  of  eight 
days. 

How  about  miracles  during  that  period  ?  Dur- 
ing that  period  there  was  the  one  super-miracle.     It 


The  Study  of  the  Bible  in  Spots  Ck; 

was  a  great  thing  when  Jesus  raised  Lazarus  from 
the  dead,  he  having  been  dead  four  days.  Have 
you  ever  thought  what  a  disaster  it  would  have 
been  if,  standing  at  the  open  door  and  looking  into 
the  dark  sepulchre,  Jesus  had  called,  "Lazarus, 
come  forth,"  and  there  had  come  forth  from  the 
sepulchre  only  an  echo  ?  We  would  have  said, 
"  Much  power  He  had,  but  here  He  is  overmastered." 
But  no  echo  came  out  of  the  sepulchre,  but  Lazarus 
himself.  That  however  was  a  small  miracle  com- 
pared to  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  All  of  these 
resurrections — resuscitations  we  should  call  them — 
were  temporary.  Lazarus  died  twice,  the  widow  of 
Nain's  son  died  twice,  the  ruler's  son  died  twice ; 
but  when  Christ  arose  from  the  dead.  He  arose  to 
die  no  more.  The  first  and  only  real  resurrection 
was  of  Him  who  lay  in  Joseph's  tomb,  and  He  was 
declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  by  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  So  that  the  climax  of 
the  Gospel  is  found  in  these  chapters,  and  the 
climax  of  the  miraculous  is  found  on  Easter  morn- 
ing when  He  arises  from  the  dead,  now  to  die  no 
more. 


TV 

A  BIRD'S-EYE  VIEW  OF  THE  ACTS  OF  THE 
APOSTLES 

THE  literature  of  the  Bible  is  wonderful. 
When  I  say  Homer,  Plato,  Aristotle, 
Socrates,  Demosthenes,  Herodotus,  I  have 
given  you  a  roster  of  great  names  along  the  line  of 
Greek  literature.  When  I  say  Virgil,  Cicero, 
Marcus  Aurelius,  Epictetus,  I  have  added  to  the 
catalogue  of  great  names,  this  time  from  Kome. 
Yet  all  of  these  taken  together,  as  helping  in  the 
spiritual  uplift  of  man's  soul,  are  not  to  be  reckoned 
in  the  same  category  with  Moses,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  John,  Paul  and  Peter. 

See  the  debt  of  gratitude  we  owe  to  the  Jew  for 
this  wonderful  literature,  to  which,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  beloved  physician,  not  one  single  Gentile 
contributed  one  word.  Blessed  be  St.  Luke  that  he 
did  contribute  in  so  rich  a  measure  two  books,  the 
Gospel  according  to  St.  Luke  and  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  Never  shall  we  cease  to  praise  God  for 
the  privilege  granted  to  that  man  to  contribute  so 
richly  to  the  New  Testament.  When  we  reach  the 
blessed  land  of  rest  we  may  well  all  greet  the  be- 
loved physician  and  say  to  him,  "  St.  Luke,  we 
thank  you  for  what  you  added  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment." 

70 


Bird's-Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     71 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  the  most  important 
single  book  in  the  New  Testament,  because  if  you 
lose  one  of  the  Gospels  you  have  three  left ;  if  you 
lose  one  or  two  of  the  Epistles  you  have  others 
left.  But  if  the  Acts  were  lost  there  is  nothing  to 
take  its  place.  The  Gospels  would  close  with  the 
ascension.  The  next  thing  you  would  read  would 
be  a  letter  by  a  man  calling  himself  Paul  to  a  cer- 
tain Church  in  Thessalonica,  and  you  would  say, 
"  Who  was  Paul  and  how  did  he  come  to  be  an 
apostle  and  how  did  the  Church  in  Thessalonica 
start  ?  "  We  should  be  utterly  in  the  dark  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  beloved  physician  supplementing 
the  life  of  Jesus  by  the  life,  activity  and  success 
of  the  apostles. 

In  dealing  with  this  book  by  St.  Luke,  I  want  to 
dwell  on  six  pivotal  events  which  it  records.  If 
we  thoroughly  master  these  we  shall  have  the  whole 
book  of  Acts  at  our  fingers'  ends.  In  calling  atten- 
tion to  these  six  pivotal  events  I  shall  omit  entirely 
the  ascension,  because  that  is  found  in  the  Gospels 
also.  I  shall  touch  on  those  pivotal  events  which 
are  found  only  in  the  Acts. 

First  Pivotal  Event:  Pentecost — which  spells 
spiritual  power.  Consider  briefly  the  situation  of 
the  eleven.  Their  Master  has  departed  from  them. 
He  has  given  them  His  parting  injunction  to  be 
witnesses  to  Him  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea 
and  in  Samaria  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth.  Who  are  these  eleven  who  are  to  take  up 
the  work  of  the  divine  Son  of  God  with  any  pos- 


72  God's  Book  and  God^s  Boy 

sible  hope  of  success  ?  Four  of  them  were  fisher- 
men with  not  even  a  high  school  education.  One 
of  them  was  the  tax-gatherer.  One  was  a  zealot, 
and  others  were  plain  men  in  the  ordinary  walks 
of  life.  While  their  Master  was  with  them  they 
had  made  many  mistakes.  They  with  quarrelling 
voices  at  the  Passover  contended  among  themselves 
as  to  which  should  be  the  greatest.  Yet  now  He 
is  leaving  them  clothed  with  the  responsibility  for 
the  spread  of  the  Gospel  which  He  has  come  to 
proclaim  upon  earth. 

Bear  in  mind,  they  were  to  bring  the  Gospel  first 
to  the  Jews.  But  the  Jews  had  rejected  their  Master 
and  said,  "  We  will  not  have  this  man  to  rule  over 
us."  The  Jew  had  already  set  his  face  against  the 
Nazarene,  and  yet  here  are  these  unlettered  men 
bidden  to  present  to  the  Jews  a  Gospel  already  dis- 
paraged.    What  was  their  chance  of  success  ? 

They  were  to  go  to  the  Greeks  as  well.  The 
Greeks  were  far  above  the  rest  of  the  world  in 
philosophy  because  they  numbered  great  philoso- 
phers among  their  ranks,  and  how  were  these 
uneducated  men  to  teach  them  ?  To  the  cultured 
Greeks  it  must  have  seemed  like  a  huge  joke. 

These  men  were  to  go  to  the  Koman  world.  If 
the  Greek  world  was  noted  for  its  culture,  the 
Roman  world  was  noted  for  its  power.  The  Koman 
world  was  given  over  to  idolatry,  and  these  men 
were  to  undertake  the  organization  of  Christianity 
in  the  Roman  world.  What  power  had  they  ade- 
quate to  their  task  ? 


Bird*s-Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     73 

See  the  trinity  of  difficulties — an  antagonistic 
Jew,  a  sophisticated  Greek,  an  idolatrous  Eoman. 
What  are  their  chances  of  success?  Humanly 
speaking,  they  had  none.  If  the  Master  had  failed, 
how  could  they  succeed  ?  Nevertheless,  He  says 
to  them,  "  Tarry  ye  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  until 
ye  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high."  That 
word  power  is  from  the  Greek  word  "dunamis," 
from  which  we  get  our  word  dynamite.  That  is 
to  say,  "  Tarry  ye  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  until 
ye  be  endued  with  dynamite  from  on  high."  Then 
it  was  that  they  tarried  until  Pentecost,  and  when 
Pentecost  came  the  promise  given  of  power  was 
fulfilled.  So  overwhelming  was  that  power  in 
breaking  down  the  hard  hearts  of  opposition  that 
the  Apostle  Peter  gained  and  baptized  in  one  day 
more  disciples  than  the  Master  had  gained  in  three 
and  a  half  years  of  His  ministry,  for  apparently 
about  five  hundred  followers  were  all  Christ  could 
count  on  after  His  resurrection.  Yet  here  the 
Apostle  Peter,  having  dynamite,  received  approxi- 
mately three  thousand  into  the  Church  in  one  day. 

No  Pentecost,  no  power ;  no  power,  no  spread  of 
the  Gospel ;  no  spread  of  the  Gospel,  Christ's  mis- 
sion ruined.  You  see  then  how  tremendous  was 
the  importance  of  that  first  step,  that  central  pivotal 
event  around  which  all  that  followed  revolved. 

Second  Pivotal  Event:  Persecution.  Strange 
that  that  should  be  a  pivotal  event  in  the  spread 
of  the  Gospel,  but  so  it  was.  The  commission  to 
the  apostles  had  been  to  begin  at  Jerusalem.    They 


74  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

had  begun  at  Jerusalem,  but  seemed  to  refuse  to 
go  beyond  it.  Oh,  but  the  Church  was  having  a 
splendid  time  in  Jerusalem  !  First  three  thousand, 
then  two  thousand  more  were  converted  and  the 
Church  was  having  favour  with  the  people,  and 
enjoying  itself  in  its  spiritual  privilege  to  the  height. 
But  they  had  been  told  to  begin  at  Jerusalem,  then 
to  go  to  Judea,  then  Samaria,  and  then  to  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  So  in  order  to  make 
them  obey  Him,  God  allowed  the  Church  to  be 
stirred  up  by  persecution  and  scattered  abroad. 
When  the  persecution  that  arose  about  Stephen 
burst  upon  the  young  Church  in  Jerusalem  there 
were  ^yq  thousand  believers  in  the  city  ;  soon  there 
was  not  one  left,  excepting  only  the  eleven.  Scat- 
tered, driven  out  from  home,  friends,  business,  the 
young  Church  instantly  had  to  flee. 

But  mark  you,  God  caused  the  wrath  of  men  to 
praise  Him  and  restrained  the  remainder,  for  we 
read  that  these  believers  scattered  abroad  every- 
where went  not  as  they  might  have  gone,  holding 
their  peace,  not  saying,  "  We  are  driven  out  because 
we  have  testified,  and  therefore  now  we  will  be 
silent."  Nay ;  the  record  is  this,  that  they  that 
were  scattered  abroad  went  everywhere  preaching 
the  Word.  So  that  from  the  blaze  of  one  spiritual 
conflagration  in  Jerusalem  there  were  a  hundred 
fires  started  all  over  the  land  and  the  cross  of 
Christ  was  preached  to  the  world  at  large  wherever 
these  persecuted  followers  fled.  Thus  that  perse- 
cution was  a  benediction. 


Bird's-Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     75 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  if  persecution 
should  fall  on  the  Church  here  in  America  it  might 
be  a  benediction.  We  are  too  safe  and  protected, 
too  self-satisfied,  too  much  wrapped  up  in  our  com- 
fortable and  luxurious  churches  and  cathedrals.  If 
we  were  driven  out,  if  we  had  to  be  the  objects  of 
persecution,  there  might  be  more  true  godliness 
and  a  more  rapid  spread  of  the  Gospel  on  the 
earth. 

Third  Pivotal  Event;  The  Change  of  the  Per- 
secutor into  the  Preacher.  That  is  to  say,  the 
conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  The  two  most  out- 
standing miracles  in  the  Kew  Testament  are,  first, 
the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and,  second,  the  conver- 
sion of  Saul  of  Tarsus. 

Years  ago  in  England,  two  men.  Lord  Lyttleton 
and  Mr.  Cecil  West,  antagonists  of  Christianity, 
agreed  that  each  should  write  a  book  against 
Christianity.  The  one  was  to  take  the  story  of 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  and  use  it  to  dis- 
prove the  claims  of  Christianity,  and  the  other  was 
to  take  the  conversion  of  Paul  to  disprove  the 
genuineness  of  that  man's  spiritual  experience. 
They  separated ;  each  studied  his  topic  ;  each  was 
illuminated;  each  wrote  a  book — Lord  Lyttleton 
on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity  drawn  from  the 
Conversion  of  Saul,  and  Cecil  West  on  the  Evi- 
dences of  Christianity  from  the  Kesurrection  of 
Christ.  I  have  the  former  book.  The  other  I 
have  searched  the  libraries  for  in  vain.  It  must 
be  out  of  print. 


76  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Yes,  this  conversion  of  St.  Paul  is  one  of  the 
most  outstanding  miracles,  because  while  he  had 
been  exceedingly  violent  as  persecutor,  as  a  preacher 
he  became  equally  earnest  in  championing  the  cause 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Our  German  friends  of  the  rationalistic  school 
have  tried  to  explain  away  the  story  of  the  con- 
version of  the  apostle  as  not  in  accordance  with 
fact.  One  of  the  explanations  they  give  is  almost 
as  miraculous  as  the  miracle  itself.  They  say  that 
the  Apostle  Paul  was  a  man  of  sanguine  tempera- 
ment, with  the  tendency  of  a  flow  of  blood  to  the 
brain;  that  in  great  excitement  at  noonday  as 
under  the  hot  sun  he  was  hastening  to  Damascus, 
there  to  carry  out  his  nefarious  schemes,  he  was 
actually  sunstruck.  Then  followed  brain  fever 
and  visions  that  had  no  external  reality.  He  saw 
sights  and  heard  sounds  which  he  thought  came 
from  the  other  world.  The  result  was  that  he  was 
a  changed  man  and  because  of  this  delirium  result- 
ing from  sunstroke,  turned  from  persecutor  to 
preacher. 

Now  that  would  be  as  great  a  miracle  as  the 
story  that  St.  Luke  tells  us.  I  never  knew  that 
sunstroke  had  the  power  to  change  a  man's  char- 
acter in  that  way  so  swiftly.  I  had  a  friend  in 
New  York  who  had  charge  of  a  chapel  that  I 
afterwards  took.  He  had  a  half  a  sunstroke,  and 
as  a  result  he  never  preached  again  for  a  year  and 
six  months,  and  yet  we  are  told  that  this  Saul  of 
Tarsus  is  sunstruck  and  begins  preaching  in  three 


Bird's- Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     77 

days.  If  that  is  the  result  of  sunstroke,  I  would 
recommend,  Mr.  President,  that  you  close  your 
Seminary  and  stand  your  students  out  in  the  hot 
July  sun  until  they  are  all  sunstruck.  Maybe  then 
some  of  them  could  rival  Saul  as  preachers. 

This  conversion  of  Saul  changed  a  great  antago- 
nistic of  the  Master  into  a  great  protagonistic  for 
the  Nazarene,  and  just  as  he  was  intense  against, 
so  he  became  intense  for  Jesus  Christ.  It  must 
have  been  to  him  an  immense  surprise  when  he 
began  to  preach  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God  to 
find  that  they  meted  out  to  him  exactly  the  same 
treatment  that  he  had  been  meting  out  to  Jesus' 
followers.  As  a  result,  the  apostle  had  to  flee 
from  Damascus  in  an  ignominious  way. 

Then  had  the  Church  rest,  when  this  man  was 
changed  from  antagonist  to  friend  and  supporter. 
Then  began  that  marvellous  career  which  only 
ended  when  he  laid  down  his  life  for  his  Master  in 
the  Imperial  City  of  Rome. 

Fourth  Pivotal  Event :  The  Breaking  Down  of 
the  Middle  Wall  of  Partition  Between  Jew  and 
Gentile.  That  middle  wall  of  partition  was  of 
divine  ordination.  When  God  called  Abraham 
and  made  him  the  father  of  the  covenant  people 
a  wall  was  raised  between  Jew  and  Gentile  and  no 
one  might  be  a  member  of  that  covenant  people 
unless  he  was  a  descendant  of  Abraham,  or  unless 
he  came  through  a  gate  in  that  wall  called  the 
Gate  of  the  Proselyte. 

That  waU  had  stood  two  thousand  years.    Peter 


78  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

knew  it  was  divinely  erected.  There  was  not  a 
single  apostle  living  who  had  the  faintest  concep- 
tion that  that  wall  was  to  come  down.  All  of 
them  thought  that  if  the  Gentiles  were  to  be  saved, 
Jews  they  must  become  and  only  then  salvation 
was  possible. 

To  the  Apostle  Peter  was  given  the  breaking 
down  of  the  middle  wall  of  partition.  But  to  con- 
vince him  that  the  command  was  divine  there  had 
to  be  overwhelming  evidence,  and  that  overwhelm- 
ing evidence  was  given  in  a  manner  entirely  unique. 
It  was  given  by  a  dual  miracle,  the  like  of  which  I 
do  not  find  anywhere  else  in  the  Bible.  A  miracle 
wrought  in  Caesarea  and  another  miracle  wrought 
in  Joppa  and  the  two  miracles  fitting  into  each 
other  like  two  sections  of  some  dovetailed  piece  of 
furniture.  Mark— Peter  is  in  Joppa  on  a  housetop, 
engaged  in  prayer,  with  no  idea  in  his  mind  that 
the  Gentile  could  come  into  the  Church  on  an  equal 
basis  with  the  Jew.  Meal-time  has  arrived.  Peter 
is  hungry,  but  while  the  meal  tarries,  he  falls  into 
a  trance.  Then  the  vision.  Down  comes  a  sheet 
and  a  voice  says,  "  Rise,  Peter ;  kill  and  eat." 
Peter  looks  into  this  sheet  and  sees  there  four- 
footed  beasts  and  unclean  things,  which  according 
to  the  laws  of  Moses  he  was  forbidden  to  eat. 
Peter  therefore  replies,  "  Not  so.  Lord  ;  for  I  have 
never  eaten  anything  that  is  common  and  unclean." 
Thereupon  the  voice  says,  "  What  God  hath 
cleansed,  make  thou  not  common,"  and  up  goes  the 
sheet.     Peter  is  bewildered.     While  he  is  thinking 


Bird's-Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     79 

it  over  down  comes  the  sheet  again  and  the  voice 
says,  "  Kise,  Peter ;  kill  and  eat."  Now  I  fancy 
Peter  may  have  thought,  "  There  will  be  a  change 
in  the  contents  of  that  sheet,  because  I  made  it 
clear  that  I  could  not  eat  unclean  things."  So  he 
opens  the  sheet  again.  The  same  misery,  the  same 
uncleanliness !  Again  perplexed  Peter  says,  "  Not 
so,  Lord ;  for  I  have  never  eaten  anything  that  is 
common  and  unclean,"  and  again  the  voice  says, 
"What  God  hath  cleansed,  make  thou  not  com- 
mon," and  up  goes  the  sheet.  Peter  is  more  mys- 
tified than  before,  but  while  he  is  thinking  down 
comes  the  sheet  the  third  time  and  the  voice  says, 
"  Kise,  Peter ;  kill  and  eat."  Now  he  thinks  it  is 
certainly  changed  and  again  he  looks  in.  The 
same  repulsive  contents !  So  for  the  third  time  he 
says,  "  Not  so,  Lord ;  for  I  have  never  eaten  any- 
thing that  is  common  and  unclean,"  and  the  third 
time  the  voice  says,  "  What  God  hath  cleansed, 
make  thou  not  common,"  and  up  goes  the  sheet. 
Peter  is  now  more  perplexed  than  ever. 

A  knock  at  the  door  down-stairs.  "  Ho,  what  is 
all  this  ? "  "  Men  have  come  from  Caesarea." 
"Whom  do  they  want?"  "Peter."  So  Peter 
goes  down  and  there  stand  the  men  sent  from 
Cornelius  in  Caesarea  who  tell  Peter  of  a  miraculous 
visit  of  an  angel  to  Cornelius  announcing  to  him 
God's  recognition  of  his  alms  and  prayers  and  bid- 
ding him  send  to  Joppa  for  Peter.  Though  Peter 
still  does  not  understand  the  meaning  of  all  this, 
the  Spirit  says  to  him,  "  Go  with  these  men  and 


8o  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

doubt  not,  because  I  have  sent  them."  So  Peter 
by  divine  admonition  starts  out  with  these  men  and 
the  next  day  but  one  after  that  they  enter  into 
Caesarea. 

Then  comes  the  story  equally  familiar  to  us  of 
Peter  saying,  "  You  know  how  it  is  unlawful  for 
me  to  go  into  the  house  of  a  Gentile,  but  God  has 
taught  me  to  call  no  man  common."  Then  the 
preaching,  then  the  Pentecostal  blessing.  Then 
Peter's  eyes  are  opened  and  he  sees  that  as  on  the 
Jew  at  first  descended  the  Holy  Spirit,  so  on  the 
Gentile  without  their  entering  into  covenant  rela- 
tionship with  the  Jew  there  has  descended  the  same 
Divine  Spirit.  Thus  the  middle  wall  of  partition, 
two  thousand  years  old,  goes  down  with  a  crash 
and  Peter  sees  that  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  there 
is  no  longer  Jew  or  Gentile,  but  the  Divine  Spirit 
of  God  makes  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus. 

What  a  blessed  privilege  to  the  apostle  to  help 
in  bringing  down  that  wall,  in  levelling  that  divid- 
ing line  so  that  henceforth  there  is  no  longer  Jew 
or  Gentile,  but  all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  Alas, 
that,  as  a  fact,  men  began  to  build  dividing  walls 
again  and  we  have  got  them  to  this  day.  There 
is  the  Presbyterian  wall,  the  Methodist  wall,  the 
Episcopal  wall,  and  the  Lutherans  have  their  wall. 
The  Baptists  have  not  got  a  wall — they  have  a 
ditch  with  some  water  in  it.  The  result  is  that  all 
these  walls  divide  one  denomination  from  another, 
separate  the  Saviour's  followers  and  make  them 
stand  on  one  side  or  the  other.     Oh,  the  pity  of  it  I 


Bird's-Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     8l 

Praise  be  to  God,  these  walls  and  ditches  with 
water  in  them  are  going  to  come  down  or  be  filled 
up  and  do  you  know  where  that  process  is  going 
on  more  rapidly  than  elsewhere  ?  It  is  in  mission 
fields,  where  missionaries  are  beginning  to  see  that 
for  the  pressing  needs  of  China,  Japan  and  Korea 
the  idea  of  a  Presbyterian  wall,  or  Methodist,  Epis- 
copal, Baptist,  Lutheran  wall,  is  absurd.  In  the 
mission  field  we  shall  have  at  last  one  Church  of 
the  living  God,  trusting  in  Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour 
Divine  and  being  sanctified  by  the  Holy  Spirit  as 
the  Divine  Third  Person  in  the  Trinity.  They 
have  got  to  come  down — these  different  walls — be- 
cause they  are  human  structures  and  not  of  divine 
ordination. 

Fifth  Pivotal  Event :  The  Organizing  of  Mis- 
sionary Work  by  the  Church.  There  had  been 
missionary  work  by  the  followers  of  Christ.  But 
now  in  Antioch  under  the  great  blessing  that  had 
come  to  them  through  Barnabas  and  Saul,  the 
Church  feels  called  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  organize 
missionary  work.  The  Holy  Ghost  saw  fit  to  call 
upon  Barnabas  and  Saul  to  undertake  this  work. 

Mark  just  here  that  when  the  Holy  Spirit  picked 
out  from  that  prosperous  Church  in  Antioch  men 
who  were  to  be  sent  abroad  it  picked  out  the  two 
best  they  had — Barnabas  and  Saul.  The  Church  at 
Antioch,  had  it  been  like  some  modern  Churches, 
might  have  made  reply,  ^*  Oh,  Lord,  what  have  you 
asked?  These  are  our  best  men.  The  Church 
cannot  get  along  without  them.     Take  some  of  the 


82  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

others.  They  are  second-rate  men.  Send  them, 
but  let  Barnabas  and  Saul  stay  here."  Modern 
Churches  have  acted  this  way  only  too  often. 
They  preserve  their  best  men  at  home  and  if  they 
have  some  kind  of  a  second  fiddle,  why  he  can  go  to 
Korea  or  China  or  Africa.  That  is  not  the  way  of 
the  Divine  Spirit.  I  believe  if  the  Church  at 
Antioch  had  held  on  to  Barnabas  and  Saul  it  would 
have  shrunk  up.  It  was  the  sending  out  of  the 
best  that  brought  back  to  them  a  benediction  that 
they  could  hardly  overestimate. 

What  we  need,  friends,  is  that  the  very  best  of 
you  shall  go  to  the  hardest  fields.  Good  men  are 
needed  to  work  in  the  slums.  No  one  of  you  is 
too  good  for  missionary  work  in  Korea,  or  in  China, 
or  in  Japan.  The  very  fact  that  you  are  called  at 
home  to  a  big  church  may  be  only  another  reason  why 
you  should  not  accept  that  call  because  it  marks  you 
as  being  a  man  of  influence.  That  very  fact  might 
send  you  to  the  slums  or  to  dark  Africa,  or  to  China, 
Japan  or  India.  The  Holy  Spirit  wants  the  Church 
always  to  put  her  best  on  the  altar.  When  she  does 
that  then  to  the  Church  will  come  so  great  a  bless- 
ing that  the  cup  of  the  Church  shall  run  over. 

Sixth  Pivotal  Event :  The  Crossing  of  the  Gospel 
from  Asia  to  Europe.  The  story,  of  course,  is  very 
familiar  to  us  ;  Paul  at  Troas,  the  vision  of  the  man 
of  Macedonia  saying,  "  Come  over  into  Macedonia 
and  help  us,"  the  conclusion  of  the  apostle  that 
that  was  a  divine  call,  and  the  swift  departure 
from  Asia  and  the  crossing  over  to  Philippi. 


Bird's-Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     83 

Now  there  had  been  several  crossings  from  one 
continent  to  another  just  about  in  that  same  locality 
in  days  gone  by.  Xerxes  had  crossed  from  Asia  to 
Europe  with  a  million  of  men  that  he  might  con- 
quer Greece,  and  only  this  summer  I  stood  by  the 
identical  spot  where  they  say  his  throne  was  as  he 
watched  his  fleet  combating  with  the  Greeks. 
Alexander  the  Great  played  a  return  match  and  as 
Xerxes  went  from  east  to  west,  Alexander  marched 
from  west  to  east,  and  at  the  battle  of  Arbela  the 
whole  Persian  Empire  was  conquered  and  Alex- 
ander advanced  almost  unopposed  to  the  borders  of 
the  Indus  River. 

Neither  of  these  crossings  had  wrought  any  great 
benefit.  Nothing  of  spiritual  value  could  be  found 
in  either  of  them.  Since  that  there  has  been  an- 
other crossing  in  that  same  locality,  when  the  Turk 
crossed  over  to  Europe,  but  that  brought  no  real 
benefit  to  Europe.  It  rather  tended  to  disturb  and 
damage,  and  Europe  will  really  be  benefited  when 
the  Turk  is  pushed  back  to  that  continent  from 
which  he  came. 

Here,  however,  an  army  is  crossing  from  Asia  to 
Europe  for  the  conquest  of  Europe  for  its  King. 
This  army  consists  of  four — Paul,  Silas,  Timothy 
and  Luke.  Xerxes'  ambition  was  much  more  easy 
to  satisfy  than  Paul's  because  it  is  much  easier  to 
conquer  a  nation  physically  than  it  is  to  conquer  it 
spiritually.  It  would  take  ten  times  more  effort  to 
conquer  a  man's  soul  than  to  conquer  his  body. 

Xerxes  having  failed,  Paul  is  now  crossing  over 


84  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

with  his  three  fellow  workers  in  order  that  he 
might  win  Europe  for  the  cause  of  his  Master  and 
for  Him  who  is  the  God  and  Father  of  us  all.  So 
these  four  go  over  invading  Europe  without  sword 
or  shield,  without  spear  or  bow. 

It  is  rather  significant,  is  it  not,  that  the  first 
convert  won  by  these  men  was  a  woman — Lydia  of 
Thyatira,  who  was  in  Philippi  at  this  time.  And 
the  second  convert  was  a  woman  with  a  spirit  of  a 
Python,  whom  the  apostle  freed  from  her  bondage. 
Frankly,  that  seems  to  me  to  illustrate  what  the 
Gospel  does  for  women.  It  does  for  us  men  bound- 
less things ;  it  does  for  woman  still  more.  God 
planted  man  in  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  gave 
woman  as  his  helpmeet  and  they  were  to  be  side  by 
side.  When  sin  came  man  pushed  woman  behind 
him  and  she  has  been  tramping  along  behind  ever 
since,  excepting  only  where  Christianity  has  come 
in.  The  Mohammedan  does  not  walk  side  by  side 
with  his  wife.  Would  he  help  his  wife  on  the 
trolley-car  ?  No,  indeed.  He  would  walk  on 
ahead  and  get  on  the  trolley-car  and  she  might  get 
on  if  she  were  quick  enough  ;  if  not,  that  was  of  no 
concern  to  him.  All  over  the  world  when  sin  is 
present  man  has  thrust  woman  behind  and  down 
and  has  kept  her  there.  When  Christianity  comes 
it  brings  woman  back  to  where  God  placed  her 
originally — side  by  side  with  man  as  his  helpmeet. 

In  modern  days  it  seems  as  if  there  were  a  move- 
ment on  foot  to  shove  woman  ahead  of  man.  She 
has  been  behind  him,  then  brought  up  to  his  side, 


Bird's-Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     85 

and  now  there  is  a  movement  to  put  her  ahead  of 
him.  I  am  sorry  for  the  advocates  of  that  move- 
ment because  it  is  contrary  to  the  nature  of  things 
and  when  you  go  against  nature,  nature  usually 
draws  back  and  gives  you  a  blow  between  your 
eyes  that  makes  you  see  stars. 

I  remember  hearing  a  lecture  by  Dr.  J.  G.  Hol- 
land years  ago  in  which  he  asked  this  question, "  Has 
woman  any  sphere  ?  "  and  his  answer  was,  "  No." 
Second,  "  Has  man  any  sphere  ?  "  and  his  answer 
was,  "  No."  "  What  then,"  he  asked,  "  is  the  situa- 
tion ?  It  is  this  :  Man  has  a  hemisphere  and  woman 
has  a  hemisphere  and  if  you  bring  two  hemispheres 
together  then  you  have  a  sphere."  Well  said. 
Man  has  his  duty,  privilege,  opportunity ;  woman, 
her  duty,  privilege,  opportunity.  Bring  these  to- 
gether and  you  get  something  that  is  divine.  When 
the  two  are  side  by  side,  hand  in  hand,  arm  in  arm, 
then  we  have  the  ideal  relationship. 

This  army  of  four  had  a  very  singular  experience. 
Within  a  very  few  days  half  of  the  army  was  in 
jail.  In  jail  because  they  tried  to,  and  succeeded 
in,  delivering  a  poor  woman  from  the  grasp  of  the 
men  that  were  making  money  out  of  her  misfortune. 
So  into  prison  Paul  and  Silas  go  because  of  their 
act  of  mercy  to  oppressed  humanity.  And  are  they 
defeated  ?  Nay  verily.  Here  is  where  you  see  the 
wonderful  triumph  of  these  men  over  all  physical 
disabilities.  I  fancy  that  if  you  had  been  a  fellow 
traveller  with  the  Apostle  Paul  you  would  have 
never    been  dull.    There  was  always  something 


86  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

doing.  You  might  not  have  been  comfortable  all 
the  time,  but  dull,  never.  You  would  not  have 
been  dull  even  in  the  darkness  of  that  prison  cell, 
though  if  your  back  had  been  in  the  same  condition 
as  his  you  might  have  been  very  uncomfortable. 
Imagine  it  for  a  minute.  From  his  neck  down  to 
his  hips  he  is  all  bruised  and  bleeding,  and  Silas  is 
in  the  same  condition.  Their  clothes  are  put  on 
their  bruised  backs  without  any  first  aid  to  the 
injured ;  not  a  drop  of  water ;  not  a  mouthful  of 
food ;  pitch  dark. 

I  fancy  I  hear  Silas  saying,  "Paul,  how  are 
you  ? "  "  Getting  along  very  well,  thank  you." 
Then  do  you  hear  Silas  say,  "  Paul,  we  always 
seem  to  get  into  trouble  when  we  preach.  Don't 
you  think  we  had  better  stop  ?  "  and  then  Paul 
reply,  "  Yes,  I  think  I  will  stop  "  ?  Oh,  no  ;  they 
begin  in  the  dark  to  sing  a  duet  of  praise  to  God. 
These  suffering,  crushed  men  praise  God  for  the 
privilege  of  suffering  in  this  way.  Such  men  you 
cannot  overthrow ;  such  men  you  cannot  conquer. 
You  may  kill,  but  conquer,  never. 

I  have  been  in  prisons  in  the  small  hours  of  the 
morning  myself,  not  as  a  prisoner,  but  as  a  visitor. 
I  have  heard  songs,  ribald,  filthy.  I  have  heard 
curses,  blasphemous,  horrible ;  but  a  song  of  praise 
to  God  from  men  whose  backs  were  in  that  condi- 
tion, never.  Have  you  ever  stopped  to  realize  what 
the  Apostle  Paul's  back  must  have  looked  like? 
Eight  times  that  man  was  whipped;  five  times 
with  whips  and  three  times  with  rods.     Eight  times 


Bird's-Eye  View  of  the  Book  of  Acts     87 

he  was  tied  to  the  post  and  eight  times  down  to  his 
hips  every  inch  of  his  back  was  bleeding.  You 
could  not  put  your  finger  on  Paul's  back  that  you 
did  not  touch  some  scar  or  blotch.  Yet  he  says 
this  was  a  light  affliction — "this  light  affliction." 
"  How  many  times  did  you  say  you  were  whipped, 
Paul?"  "Eight  times."  "And  yet  you  talk 
about  a  light  affliction?  "  Hear  his  answer.  "  For 
our  light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment, 
worketh  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory."  That  kind  of  a  man  you  cannot 
conquer. 

This  was  the  kind  of  an  army  which,  going  from 
Asia  to  Europe,  began  that  westward  march  of  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  that  paused  not  until  it 
struck  these  Western  shores  and  is  now  rolling 
across  the  Pacific  into  Japan  and  China. 


JOSEPH— PRISONER  AND  PRIME  MINISTER 

JOSEPH  is  presented  to  us  in  the  Bible  as  a 
most  beautiful  character,  one  whose  study 
well  repays  every  Christian  teacher.  To 
Abraham  there  are  given  thirteen  chapters  in  the 
book  of  Genesis,  and  to  Joseph  thirteen,  thus  giving 
more  than  one-half  of  the  first  book  of  the  Bible  to 
the  narrative  of  these  two  men's  lives. 

We  may  find  flaws  in  Abraham's  character  as 
well  as  in  Isaac's.  Jacob's  life  is  full  of  mistakes 
and  sins.  Moses  spoke  once  unadvisedly  with  his 
lips,  and  Aaron  sinned  grievously  in  the  matter  of 
the  golden  calf.  Paul  had  a  burst  of  anger  with 
Barnabas,  James  and  John  desired  at  one  time  to 
call  down  fire  from  Heaven  to  burn  a  whole  Sa- 
maritan village  alive.  Peter,  like  Jacob,  was  full  of 
faults.  But  in  the  whole  life  of  Joseph  there  is  no 
single  fault  recorded.  This  does  not  mean  that  he 
w^as  sinless,  but  it  does  mean  that  the  Divine  Spirit 
did  not  see  enough  that  was  variant  from  the  truth 
in  his  life  to  make  record  of  the  same.  There  are 
few  of  these  Bible  characters  of  whom  this  can  be 
said.     Among  these  are  Joshua  and  Daniel. 

Joseph's  life  falls  into  two  divisions.  First,  his 
humiliation,   dealt    with    in    Chapters    XXXYII, 

88 


Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister     89 

XXXIX,  and  XL,  and  second,  his  exaltation, 
which  occupies  Chapters  XLI  to  L  inclusive. 

First,  his  humihation.  He  is  introduced  to  us 
in  the  family  of  Jacob  at  the  age  of  seventeen  as 
an  upright  and  lovable  boy.  He  was  his  father's 
favourite,  and  this  very  fact  aroused  the  jealousy 
and  envy  of  his  brothers.  (See  Genesis  xxxvii.  3-4.) 
Incidentally,  we  pause  to  notice  that  family  favour- 
itism never  produces  good  results.  In  the  family, 
if  nowhere  else,  justice  must  be  held  in  even  balance 
and  every  member  of  the  family  must  be  looked 
upon  and  loved  and  cared  for  as  tenderly  as  every 
other  member.  Old  Jacob,  however,  having  taken 
Joseph  as  his  favourite,  emphasized  this  most  un- 
wisely in  giving  him  a  garment  that  should  dis- 
tinguish him  at  once  from  his  brothers  and  make 
him  the  observed  of  all  observers. 

This  envy  by  his  brothers  soon  intensified  by 
reason  of  two  dreams  which  Joseph  had,  which 
were  prophetic  dreams,  the  one  where  the  sheaves 
bowed  down  to  his  sheaf,  and  the  other  where  the 
sun,  moon  and  stars  did  him  reverence,  and  the 
result  of  his  telling  these  dreams,  in  a  kind  of  boy- 
ish though  unwise  enthusiasm,  was  that  his  breth- 
ren hated  him  yet  the  more. 

It  was  his  duty  at  times  to  bring  a  full  report  of 
his  brethren  to  their  father.  This  naturally  did 
not  in  any  way  modify  their  feelings,  so  they  laid 
up  their  envy  and  hatred  for  a  convenient  season. 
This  season  came  when  the  aged  Jacob  sent  his 
favourite  boy  to  inquire  concerning  the  welfare  of 


go  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

his  shepherd  brothers.  They  were  at  this  time  in 
Dothan,  and  there  Joseph  finds  them.  As  soon  as 
they  see  him,  they  recognize  that  now,  at  last,  their 
chance  has  come.  Away  from  the  father's  tent 
and  home,  alone,  they  have  got  him,  and  now  they 
propose  to  wreak  their  vengeance  on  this  innocent 
boy.  Their  first  plan  was  to  kill  him.  This  was 
changed,  however,  through  the  intervention  of 
Keuben.  Then  they  threw  him  into  a  pit  from 
which  Keuben  planned  to  rescue  him.  The  valley 
of  Dothan  abounds  to  this  day  in  these  limestone 
pits,  and  there  the  purpose  of  most  of  them  seems 
to  have  been  to  leave  the  boy  to  starve.  But  this 
plan  was  changed  when  certain  Midianites,  also 
called  Ishmaelites,  passed  by  on  their  journey  to 
Egypt.  Then  Jacob's  blood,  the  scheming,  money- 
making  blood,  told,  and  Judah  said,  "  What  profit 
is  there  in  our  brother's  blood  ?  Come,  let  us  sell 
him  to  the  Midianites."  So  poor  Joseph  is  pulled 
up  out  of  the  pit  and  sold  to  the  Midianites  for 
twenty  pieces  of  silver.  The  brothers  pocket  the 
cash  and  return  to  their  father  whom  they  deceive 
with  acts  and  words,  while  they  hypocritically  rise 
up  to  comfort  him  in  his  sorrow  at  the  loss  of  his 
favourite  boy. 

In  the  East  things  are  now  largely  as  they  were 
3,700  years  ago.  Well  do  I  remember  sitting  in 
that  valley  of  Dothan,  which  we  visited  out  of  re- 
spect to  the  memory  of  Joseph,  and  at  noon-time 
taking  our  lunch  just  as  the  brothers  did  on  that 
historic  occasion.     While  we  were  talking  of  Joseph 


Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister     91 

and  his  experiences,  we  heard  bells,  and  across  the 
mouth  of  the  little  lateral  valley  of  Dothan,  which 
branches  off  from  the  highway  between  Damascus 
and  Egypt,  there  passed  a  caravan,  as  of  old,  garbed 
in  the  same  robes  and  on  the  same  errand  as  these 
men  were  to  whom  Joseph  was  sold.  It  was  fairly 
startling,  and  we  almost  looked  around  to  see  where 
the  pit  was  in  which  we  might  find  the  living  Joseph. 

Down  to  Egypt  this  innocent  boy  is  carried,  and 
there  sold  into  the  house  of  Potiphar,  one  of 
Pharaoh's  officers.  There  he  tarried  for  some  con- 
siderable time,  until  through  the  iniquity  of 
Potiphar's  own  wife  he  was  again  ensnared,  not  in 
iniquity,  but  in  her  toils.  When  he  w^ould  not 
yield  to  her  temptation  she  instantly  maligned  him 
to  her  husband.  The  result  was  that  Joseph  had 
to  descend  one  step  further  in  the  line  of  humilia- 
tion, and  from  slave  in  Potiphar's  house  he  goes  as 
prisoner  into  the  jail  of  the  king. 

There  he  tarried  for  about  four  years.  There 
too,  as  in  Potiphar's  house,  his  fidelity  and  ability 
were  equally  marked.  As  in  Potiphar's  house  all 
things  were  put  under  his  charge,  so  in  the  prison 
whatever  was  done  Joseph  was  the  doer  of  it. 

Here  we  pause  for  a  moment  to  see  the  conflict 
between  plans  human  and  plans  divine.  The  hu- 
man plan  of  the  brothers  is  to  get  Joseph  out  of  the 
way  for  good  and  all.  The  divine  plan  is  through 
Joseph's  instrumentality  to  make  a  place  for  Jacob 
and  his  family,  where  they  may  abide  in  time  of 
stress  and  storm,  and  where,  in  Egypt,  they  may 


92  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

multiply,  and  at  last  in  due  season  be  brought  back 
to  the  land  which  God  promised  to  Abraham  and 
his  seed.  These  two  plans,  human  and  divine,  here 
collide,  and  most  instructive  it  is  whenever  we  see 
a  collision  between  human  and  divine  purposes,  to 
see  how  God  will  utilize  all  the  human,  both  the 
sin  and  the  holiness,  and  work  out  the  warp  and 
woof  of  the  divine  plan  with  absolute  perfection. 
The  brothers  thought  that  they  had  accomplished 
their  plan,  and  were  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  God 
was  using  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  Him,  and 
was  restraining  the  remainder. 

We  see  this  collision  between  plans  human  and 
plans  divine  not  infrequently  in  the  word  of  God, 
and  it  is  helpful  to  our  feeble  faith  to  see  how  al- 
ways the  divine  is  victorious,  and  the  human  and 
sinful  is  pushed  to  the  wall  to  make  way  for  God's 
plan  to  move  on  to  complete  success. 

It  is  worth  our  while  here  also  to  mark  the  stead- 
fastness of  Joseph's  character  in  the  midst  of  ad- 
versities. All  these  things  came  to  him,  not  be- 
cause of  his  sin,  but  because  of  his  righteousness. 
That  is  hard  to  understand  and  we  sometimes  are 
tempted  to  say,  "  Surely  in  vain  have  I  cleansed 
my  heart,"  for  "  all  these  things  are  against  me," 
and,  what  profit  is  there  that  I  should  serve  Je- 
hovah when  this  is  the  outcome  of  my  loyalty? 
Yet,  with  all  these  adversities  coming  to  him  be- 
cause of  his  steadfastness,  Joseph's  faith  never 
varied  or  failed,  nor  was  his  disposition  in  any  way 
soured  so  that  he  became  vengeful.    We  see  this  in 


Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister     93 

the  way  in  which  he  treated  Potiphar,  in  the  way 
in  which  he  stood  for  the  right  in  that  man's  family. 
We  see  it  again  in  the  way  in  which  he  showed  his 
fidelity  in  prison  and  was  kind  to  Egyptian  pris- 
oners like  the  butler  and  the  baker  who  were  placed 
under  his  care. 

Had  Joseph  been  like  some  modern  men  this 
would  have  been  his  argument :  "  These  Egyptians 
bought  me  when  they  had  no  right  to  purchase  me. 
Potiphar  put  me  here  in  prison  for  doing  right  and 
not  wrong.  Now  is  my  chance,  and  being  in 
charge  in  this  prison,  when  Egyptian  prisoners 
come  in  I  will  have  my  revenge  on  them." 

I  fancy  had  Joseph  had  a  disposition  like  this 
when  the  butler  and  the  baker  came  into  the  prison 
he  might  have  seen  his  chance  to  retaliate,  and  to 
make  their  lives  a  burden  to  them  while  they  were 
there.  This,  however,  was  not  in  any  sense  Joseph's 
feeling,  for  he  was  sympathetic  with  the  prisoners, 
as  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  one  morning  on  com- 
ing in  to  see  them,  he  noticed  on  the  faces  of  the 
butler  and  the  baker  an  unusual  expression  of  sad- 
ness, and  kindly  he  inquired,  "  Wherefore  are  your 
countenances  sad  this  day  ?  "  Sympathetically  he 
entered  into  their  dreams,  and  gave  them  a  proper 
interpretation,  and  so  showed  that  the  milk  of  hu- 
man kindness  was  as  sweet  as  ever  with  him,  in 
spite  of  all  the  adverse  circumstances  with  which 
he  had  to  contend.  Here  are  Christian  graces  after 
the  type  of  the  beatitudes,  illustrated  1,700  years 
before  the  beatitudes  were  uttered.    Here  is  the 


94  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

spirit  of  Christianity  exemplified  before  Christ  ever 
was  born,  showing  that  even  under  the  old  dispen- 
sation grace  might  foster  those  virtues  which  are 
the  true  adornment  of  every  child  of  God. 

We  do  well  to  call  attention  to  these  facts  be- 
cause they  stand  out  most  markedly  in  the  times 
and  in  the  environment  in  which  Joseph  found 
himself.  Kindliness,  purity,  honesty  and  sympathy 
were  not  graces  that  had  been  cultivated  in  those 
days  to  any  great  extent.  More  was  it  cruelty,  in- 
trigue, revenge  and  resentment.  All  the  more, 
then,  like  a  lily  growing  in  a  swamp,  does  this 
wondrous  character  of  Joseph  stand  forth  as  some 
thing  to  be  admired,  testifying  to  the  grace  of  God, 
and  the  triumphs  that  He  can  attain  in  the  working 
out  of  perfect  human  character. 

Again  it  is  worth  while  to  note  now  God  uses 
minute  links  in  the  chain  of  divine  providence  to 
work  out  His  great  purposes.  Was  there  any  con- 
nection between  the  sadness  on  the  faces  of  the 
butler  and  the  baker,  and  the  deliverance  of  Israel 
from  Egypt  ?  Was  there  any  connection  between 
Joseph's  sympathetic  interest  in  their  dolorous  con- 
dition and  the  triumphant  exodus  of  the  Israelites  ? 
Not  to  the  human  eye.  But  as  the  story  is  given 
to  us  here  we  see  easily  that  all  these  little  things 
were  links,  welded  together  by  divine  supervision 
and  care,  making  a  great  chain  of  divine  provi- 
dence. So  that  between  the  sadness  of  the  butler 
and  the  baker,  and  the  exodus  on  that  eventful 
night  years  later  there  is  close  connection. 


Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister     95 

Darwin,  in  one  of  his  enchanting  lectures,  says 
he  noticed  that  in  English  villages  heartsease  would 
not  grow  wild,  but  away  from  the  villages  they 
grew  wild  in  abundance.  Looking  for  the  cause 
for  this  he  found  a  chain  of  causes.  In  English 
villages  dogs  abound  and  run  at  large.  Where 
dogs  run  at  large  cats  must  stay  at  home.  Where 
cats  stay  at  home  field-mice  abound.  Where  field- 
mice  abound,  bumblebees'  nests  are  destroyed. 
Where  bumblebees'  nests  are  destroyed  pollen  is 
not  carried  from  flower  to  flower  for  fertilization. 
Therefore,  dogs,  no  heartsease. 

This  is  one  of  those  beautiful  hidden  chains  made 
up  of  links,  and  until  you  understand  the  links  you 
cannot  understand  the  result.  Take  the  links  here 
between  the  sadness  of  the  butler  and  the  baker 
and  the  triumphant  exodus.  jS'o  sadness  on  their 
countenances,  no  notice  taken  by  Joseph.  No 
notice  taken  by  Joseph,  no  interpretation  of  their 
dreams.  No  interpretation  of  their  dreams,  no  re- 
membrance of  Joseph  by  the  butler  when  he  was 
restored  to  the  king's  favour.  No  remembrance 
of  Joseph  by  the  butler  when  he  was  restored  to 
the  court,  no  deliverance  of  Joseph.  No  deliver- 
ance of  Joseph,  no  preparation  for  Jacob  to  come 
down  to  Egypt.  No  preparation  for  Jacob  to  come 
down  to  Egypt,  no  exodus. 

It  is  charming  to  watch  the  minute  links  which 
God  makes  use  of,  for  doubtless  as  it  was  in 
Joseph's  case,  so  it  is  in  our  cases.  God  is  making 
use  daily  of  links  in  our  experience  to  weld  them 


96  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

into  the  great  chain  of  divine  providence  in  our 
behalf.  It  well  repays  the  student  of  Bible  history 
and  especially  of  Bible  biography  to  look  for  these 
chains  with  their  multitudinous  links  and  to  see 
how  God  uses  things  small  as  well  as  things  great 
to  work  out  His  divine  purpose. 

This  brings  us,  second,  to  Joseph's  exaltation. 
This  came  with  a  leap.  To-day  in  prison,  to- 
morrow, second  in  the  kingdom.  How  this  came 
about  we  need  not  recount,  for  the  story  is  familiar 
to  every  Bible  reader.  There  are  some  who  think 
that  the  story  (because  of  its  very  extraordinary 
nature)  is  apocryphal,  and  that  no  ruler  would  take 
a  man  out  of  prison  and  promote  him  at  one  leap 
to  be  second  in  the  kingdom.  We  admit  that  the 
story  is  rather  extraordinary  for  us  Occidentals, 
but  we  do  not  admit  that  it  is  so  peculiar  for 
Orientals,  for  Oriental  methods  have  been  and  still 
are  at  antipodes  from  those  which  we  adopt. 

In  my  home  in  Constantinople  the  Sultan  had  a 
private  dentist  whose  name  was  De  la  Hue,  and 
his  business  was  to  wait  on  the  Sultan  when  called 
for.  One  day  the  Sultan  had  a  toothache  and  sent 
for  his  dentist.  The  dentist  was  off  shooting,  and 
the  messenger  said,  "  Your  Majesty,  the  dentist 
cannot  be  had."  "  Get  me  a  dentist,"  demanded 
the  Sultan. 

Now  there  was  a  dentist  near  the  Galata  Tower, 
whose  gilded  tooth  I  have  often  seen  swinging 
over  his  office  on  the  street.  He  pulled  teeth  for 
twenty -five  cents  apiece.     The  stupid  officials  knew 


Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister     97 

of  no  other  dentist  than  that  one,  and  mounting 
their  horses  they  rode  up  to  his  office  and  told  him 
their  errand.  Then  they  discovered  that  he  had 
no  garments  suitable  to  enter  the  palace  in.  So 
they  mounted  him  on  a  horse,  took  him  to  a  ready 
made  clothing  store,  dressed  him  appropriately  and 
took  him  to  the  palace.  He  examined  into  the  diffi- 
culty, found  the  offending  molar,  extracted  it,  and 
the  Sultan  was  at  rest. 

Immediately  the  Sultan  deposed  his  French  den- 
tist, and  put  this  man  in  his  place,  created  him  a 
Pasha  or  peer  of  the  realm,  gave  him  a  palace  in 
the  city  and  a  palace  in  the  country  and  an  annual 
stipend  that  made  him  one  of  the  rich  men  in  the 
land.     To-day  in  a  garret,  pulling  teeth  at  twenty- 
five  cents  a  tooth,  to-morrow  peer  of  the  reahn 
with  two  palaces  and  an  annual  stipend.     Had  this 
dentist  had  the  common  sense  of  Joseph  all  might 
have  gone  well  with  him,  but  to  carry  out  the 
illustration    of    Oriental    manners    I  must  finish 
the  story.     The  dentist,  through  great  prosperity, 
lost  his  head,  took  a  pistol  and  forced  his  way  into 
the  presence  of  the  Chief  Admiral  and  threatened 
to  shoot  him.     The  Chief  Admiral  asked,  "  Who  is 
this  man  ? "     They  said,  "  The   Sultan  yesterday 
made  him  a  peer."     "  Oh,  did  he  ?  "  said  the  Chief 
Admiral.     With  that  he  called  for  a  carriage  and 
drove  to  the  palace,  and  said,  "  Your  Majesty,  this 
man  whom  you  created  Pasha  yesterday  threatens 
to  shoot  me."     "  Send  him  to  me,"  says  the  Sultan. 
So  the  new  peer  is  brought  before  the  Sultan,  and 


98  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

like  a  flash  the  Sultan  takes  away  his  title,  his 
palace  in  the  countrj^,  his  palace  in  the  city,  and 
his  annual  stipend  and  puts  him  back  in  his  garret. 

That  is  Orientalism,  pure  and  simple,  and  that 
will  illustrate  (if  any  one  thinks  that  Joseph's  story 
is  rather  extraordinary)  Oriental  methods.  For  the 
Oriental  people  there  is  nothing  extraordinary  in 
anything  that  an  absolute  sovereign  does.  In 
Joseph's  case,  however,  Pharaoh  had  good  ground 
for  his  action. 

So  now  we  have  Joseph  riding  around  Egypt 
in  a  chariot,  with  outrunners  who  cry,  "Bow  the 
knee  ! "  and  every  man  who  sees  Joseph's  chariot 
coming  prostrates  himself.  Thus  God  is  working 
out  His  plan,  the  malignant  plan  of  the  brothers  is 
being  thwarted,  and  God's  purposes  concerning 
Israel  are  moving  on  to  completion  with  majestic 
power. 

Now  we  come  to  fourteen  years  of  extraordinary 
activity  on  the  part  of  this  Prime  Minister.  First, 
the  seven  years  of  great  plenty.  Second,  the  seven 
years  of  great  famine.  And  here  I  might  say  that 
within  a  few  years  there  has  been  dug  up  in  Egypt 
a  scroll  which  is  the  petition  of  certain  men  to  the 
king  for  a  remission  of  their  taxes  because  of  seven 
years,  consecutively,  of  famine  under  which  they 
have  been  suffering,  and  that  scroll  dates  back  to 
the  days  of  Joseph. 

During  these  years  of  activity  Joseph  went 
"throughout  all  the  land  of  Egypt."  That  ex- 
pression gained  a  new  significance  to  me  when  I 


Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister     99 

visited  Egypt,  for  Egypt  is  like  my  hand  and  arm. 
The  hand  with  outstretched  fingers  is  like  the  delta 
of  the  Nile,  and  the  arm  is  the  river.  As  you  go 
up  the  river  from  the  delta  south,  for  fifteen  hun- 
dred miles  you  can  see  from  the  deck  of  your  boat 
every  particle  of  arable  land  on  either  side.  For 
the  most  part  the  arable  land  is  but  a  mile  wide  on 
either  side  of  the  river,  sometimes  two  miles,  but  at 
the  very  widest  five  miles.  Outside  of  that  sand, 
eternal  sand,  where  even  beetles  can  hardly  live. 
So  that  Joseph's  going  throughout  all  the  land  of 
Egypt  to  gather  grain  practically  meant  that  he 
got  into  his  dahabeah,  or  native  boat,  and  sailed  up 
and  down,  riding  occasionally  a  mile,  or  perhaps 
two  miles,  or  Q.Ye  miles  inland,  and  returning  again 
to  his  boat,  to  see  that  the  taxes  were  properly 
paid  during  those  years  when  the  ground  brought 
forth  by  handfuls. 

During  all  this  time  Joseph  had  communicated 
in  no  way  with  his  father,  and  that  seems  to  us 
rather  strange.  While  he  was  a  slave  he  could  not, 
nor  while  he  was  in  prison,  but  when  he  came  to 
the  position  of  Prime  Minister  our  modern  ideas 
would  naturally  suggest  that  he  should  make  some 
great  effort  to  find  out  whether  his  father  was  alive 
or  no.  But  there  seems  to  have  been  no  such  effort. 
In  explaining  this  let  us  bear  in  mind  that  com- 
munication in  those  days  was  not  as  rapid  as  in  our 
time.  Joseph  had  no  telegraph,  and  he  had  no 
telephone  to  call  his  father  up,  and  say,  "  Hello,  is 
that  you,  father  ?    Well,  this  is  Joseph.    No,  you 


loo  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

are  mistaken,  I  am  alive.  No,  I  was  not  killed, 
they  sold  me  down  in  Egypt  and  put  me  in  prison, 
and  now  I  am  next  to  the  throne.  Won't  you 
hurry  up,  father,  and  come  here,  because  there  is 
plenty  of  food  here  ?  " 

The  Oriental  is  ordinarily  somewhat  phlegmatic 
and  Joseph  was  very  busy  during  those  years  of 
plenty,  and  I  suspect  that  he  felt  in  his  deepest 
soul,  "  They  will  come  down  sooner  or  later,  and  I 
will  see  them,  and  when  they  come  then  I  will 
make  them  understand  that  God  meant  all  this  for 
good  to  me  and  to  them  as  well." 

At  last  the  famine  pressed  hard  even  in  Pales- 
tine, and  Jacob  sent  his  sons  down  to  Egypt  to 
purchase  food.  Now  comes  that  interesting  series 
of  interviews  between  Joseph  and  his  brothers, 
prolonged  and  repeated  as  they  were.  If  you  read 
the  story  in  a  cursory  way  you  will  gain  the  im- 
pression that  Joseph  was  hard  in  heart  to  his 
brethren  and  harsh  in  manner.  And  so  he  was 
outwardly,  because  their  hearts  were  hard,  and 
required  to  be  broken  before  they  could  be  brought 
to  a  proper  sense  of  their  cruelty  and  to  a  right 
state  of  mind.  But  that  Joseph  did  it  with  kindly 
intent  is  evident  by  the  number  of  times  we  see  it 
recorded  that  he  refrained  from  ^veeping,  or  that 
he  went  out  and  wept  because  he  could  not  restrain 
himself,  and  he  was  not  willing  to  be  seen  weeping 
before  the  time  came  when  he  could  reveal  himself 
to  them  as  their  brother.  All  his  actions  were 
with  intent,  and  wise,  because  he  desired  God's 


Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister     loi 

purposes  to  be  carried  out  in  their  hearts  and  lives 
as  well  as  in  his  own. 

Kemembering  this  we  will  be  better  able  to  in- 
terpret these  interviews,  culminating  at  last  in  that 
magnificent  burst  of  affection  when  Joseph  orders 
every  Egyptian  out  of  the  court  that  the  Egyptians 
may  not  see  him  break  down  in  paroxysmal  w^eep- 
ing,  as  one  by  one  he  embraces  these  brothers  of 
his.  This  is  a  beautifully  tender  picture,  unsur- 
passed perhaps  anywhere  in  the  Bible  excepting  in 
the  story  of  David  and  Jonathan  and  of  Ruth  and 
Naomi. 

The  brothers  go  back  to  their  father  after  their 
first  interview  with  Joseph,  not  knowing  yet  who 
he  is,  and  they  tell  the  story  to  their  father,  while 
he,  suffering,  broken-hearted,  refuses  to  allow  Ben- 
jamin to  go  down  to  Egypt,  and  says,  "  Joseph  is 
not,  and  Simeon  is  not,  and  ye  will  take  Benjamin 
away."  Poor  blind  Jacob  says,  "  All  these  things 
are  against  me."  Had  he  had  clearer  vision  he 
would  have  said,  "All  these  things  are  for  me." 
The  selling  of  Joseph,  the  arrest  of  Simeon  and  the 
request  for  Benjamin  were  all  parts  of  God's  plan 
in  the  woof  and  warp  of  divine  providence. 

Paul  had  clearer  vision  when  in  the  eighth  chap- 
ter of  Romans  he  said,  "  And  we  know  that  to 
them  that  love  God  all  things  work  together  for 
good."  Not  "a  few  things,"  not  "many  things," 
not  "most  things,"  but  "all  things,"  says  the 
apostle.  Had  Jacob  had  Paul's  vision  he  would 
have  said,  "This  is  God's  way,  and  through  this 


102  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

devious  and  sometimes  dark  pathway  God  is  lead- 
ing out  and  up  and  on." 

It  is  significant  that  poor  Jacob's  confidence  in 
his  boys  and  their  fidelity  was  so  small  that  when 
at  last  they  told  him,  "  Joseph  is  alive,"  he  would 
not  believe  one  of  them.  What  made  him  believe 
was  the  wagons  which  Joseph  sent  to  bring  the 
old  man  down,  for  the  record  is,  ^'  And  when  Jacob 
saw  the  wagons  that  Joseph  had  sent  to  carry  him 
the  spirit  of  Jacob  their  father  revived."  That  is 
a  commentary  on  his  sons  and  their  influence  with 
him,  and  his  confidence  in  them,  and  that  may 
make  us  understand  again  why  Joseph  put  his  heel 
on  them  for  a  while  until  he  could  bring  them  to 
their  senses. 

Then  follows  the  descent  into  Egypt  in  accord- 
ance with  what  God  had  told  Abraham  long  before, 
that  his  seed  must  go  down  to  Egypt  and  there 
they  must  endure  affliction  for  generations  (or 
centuries)  before  they  should  be  ripe  for  trans- 
plantation to  the  land  w^hich  God  gave  to  Abraham 
and  his  seed  forever.  There  in  Egypt,  first  with 
prosperity  and  secondly  with  adversity,  God  was 
welding  together  into  w^onderful  unity  that  people 
whose  solidarity  never  is  to  be  broken  until  the 
day  of  their  final  redemption.  Egypt  did  for 
Israel  what  has  never  been  done  for  any  nation  on 
earth,  for  the  people  of  purest  blood  this  day  on  the 
face  of  the  globe  are  not  Gentiles  but  the  Jewish 
people,  and  the  nation  which  God  scattered,  over 
two  thousand  years  ago,  is  still  one  in  its  national 


Joseph — Prisoner  and  Prime  Minister     103 

unity,  still  one  in  its  religious  adhesiveness,  and 
will  remain  one  until  the  day  that  God's  purpose 
is  wrought  out  and  they  accept  Christ  as  David's 
greater  Son,  as  the  Messiah.  God's  purpose  for 
Israel  is  not  completed  yet.  When  it  is  completed, 
there  will  come  not  to  Israel  only  but  to  the  Gen- 
tile world  the  fullness  of  the  divine  blessing,  for 
as  the  apostle  says,  if  the  casting  away  of  Israel 
has  been  a  blessing  to  the  Gentile  world,  what 
shall  their  ingathering  be  unto  the  same  world  but 
life  from  the  dead  ? 

At  last  the  end  of  life  comes  to  this  grand  man 
Joseph,  and  his  abiding  faith  in  God  and  His 
promises  is  shown  when  he  takes  an  oath  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  as  told  in  the  last  chapter  of 
Genesis,  saying,  "  God  shall  surely  visit  you,  and  ye 
shall  carry  up  my  bones  from  hence."  Embalmed 
and  laid  in  a  mummy  case,  and  that  in  a  sarcoph- 
agus, the  body  of  Joseph  is  the  longest  unburied 
body  in  history,  for  it  remained  unburied  probably 
for  two  centuries  or  more,  a  standing  witness  to  his 
faith  in  God.  For  when,  in  passing,  an  Israelite 
child  said  to  its  father,  "Whose  is  that  sarcoph- 
agus ?  "  the  answer  might  well  have  been,  "  The 
sarcophagus  of  Joseph."  "  Why  is  it  not  laid  away 
in  some  final  resting  place  ?  "  "  Because  he  took 
an  oath  of  us,  saying  God  would  one  day  visit  us, 
and  we  should  take  his  body  when  we  go,  and  my 
boy,  go  you  shall,  one  day." 

A  wonderful  testimony  was  that  uninterred  body, 
therefore,  for  at  least  two  hundred  and  fifteen 


104  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

years,  and  it  is  most  uplifting  to  realize  that  on  that 
night  of  superlative  excitement  when  Israel  gathered 
itself  together  to  march,  they  never  forgot  the 
body  of  Joseph.  Some  committee  was  put  on  guard 
to  see  that  when  they  started  that  mummy  case  in 
the  sarcophagus  should  not  be  left  behind,  and  the 
record  is  that  on  that  night  when  they  marched 
they  took  with  them  the  body  of  Joseph. 

No  funeral  procession  was  ever  as  long  as  that  of 
this  wonderful  man,  for  his  funeral  procession  was 
forty  years  long.  Throughout  all  their  wanderings 
in  the  wilderness  they  never  forgot  that  mummy 
case.  Whether  by  day  or  by  night  they  journeyed 
it  went  with  them.  Whatever  might  have  been 
left  behind  that  never  was.  Though  the  story 
never  relates  that  it  was  so,  we  know  it  must  have 
been  so,  because  in  Joshua  xxiv.  32,  after  they  have 
gotten  to  the  very  centre  of  the  land,  the  record 
reads  that  they  buried  the  body  of  Joseph  in 
Shechem. 

So  wondrously  the  man's  life  begins,  continues 
and  closes.  So  wondrously  God's  providence 
elaborates  the  divine  plan,  making  use  of  human  sin 
and  frailty,  making  use  of  man's  perverse  desires  as 
well  as  man's  fidelity  and  consecration,  and  work- 
ing out  that  which  He  said  at  the  beginning  He 
would  accomplish  that  His  people  should  be  so- 
journers in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  in  due  time  they 
should  be  brought  out  and  transplanted  into  the 
land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey. 


yi 

MOSES— LEADER  AND  LAWGIVER 

FOR  a  short  while  after  Joseph  died  thi.Qgs 
went  well  with  Israel  in  Egypt.  Then 
there  arose  a  ruler  who  knew  not  Joseph. 
Israel  was  enslaved  and  for  many  scores  of  years 
served  by  the  brick  kiln.  Tyranny  increases  until 
finally  when  bondage  is  at  its  most  cruel  point  there 
comes  the  deliverer,  and  this  gives  rise  to  the  Jewish 
proverb,  "  When  the  tale  of  bricks  is  doubled,  then 
comes  Moses,"  which  is  their  way  of  saying,  "  When 
night  is  darkest  morning  is  nearest,"  or  "  Man's  ex- 
tremity is  God's  opportunity." 

Moses  was  born  while  the  decree  was  still  in 
force  that  all  male  children  of  the  Israelites  should 
be  thrown  into  the  river.  Here  we  have,  as  in  the 
case  of  Joseph,  a  clean-cut  collision  between  the 
divine  plan  concerning  this  baby  and  the  human 
plan.  As  we  said  then,  so  we  again  say,  it  is 
charming  to  watch  the  working  out  of  the  divine 
plan  and  the  pushing  to  the  wall  of  the  human 
plan ;  to  see  how  God  causes  the  wrath  of  men  to 
praise  Him  and  the  remainder  He  restrains. 

God's  plan  concerning  this  baby  is  "  He  shall  de- 
liver my  people."  Pharaoh's  plan  is  "  He  shall  go 
into  the  river."  Mark  how  in  God's  plan  He  makes 
use  of  human  instrumentality  and,  in  saving  the  life 

105 


io6  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

of  this  babe  without  any  miracle  whatsoever,  over- 
turns Pharaoh's  plan,  and  gives  His  own  plan  the 
right  of  way.  There  are  in  this  chain  of  divine 
providences  delivering  the  baby  many  links,  some 
of  them  inconspicuous,  yet  all  of  them  necessary 
for  the  fulfilling  of  the  divine  purpose.  Among 
these  links  is  a  woman's  wit.  Jochebed,  Moses' 
mother,  knowing  that  she  cannot  conceal  her  child 
much  longer,  puts  her  wits  to  work,  conceives  the 
plan  of  the  ark  of  bulrushes,  daubed  inside  and 
outside  with  pitch  and  slime,  and  entrusts  her  child 
to  the  river  in  this  little  ark.  Another  link  is  the 
sister's  fidelity.  Miriam,  thirteen  years  old,  is  put 
to  watch  that  baby  boy  to  see  that  no  harm  comes 
to  the  child,  and  to  see  that  when  Pharaoh's 
daughter  comes  down,  she,  Miriam,  shall  intervene 
at  the  psychological  moment.  Had  Miriam  been 
unfaithful  and  run  off  and  played  with  the  girls, 
Pharaoh's  daughter  might  have  come  down  to  the 
river  and  found  the  child  and  taken  it  away,  and 
then  Moses  never  would  have  known  his  ancestry. 
Well,  the  princess  came  down  to  the  river,  and  see- 
ing the  little  ark  among  the  bulrushes,  curiosity 
(another  link)  is  aroused  and  she  sends  her  maid  to 
see  what  might  be  in  the  ark.  There  they  find  a 
little  baby  weeping  and  this  brings  in  the  fourth 
link  in  the  chain  of  divine  providences  and  that  is  a 
baby's  tears.  The  tears  of  the  child  touch  the  heart 
of  the  princess  and  she  says,  "  This  is  one  of  the 
Hebrews'  children." 

Were  I  a  poet  I  would  begin  my  song  with 


Moses — Leader  and  Lawgiver  107 

Moses'  tears  and  would  make  them  swell  into  such 
a  flood  as  should  drown  Pharaoh's  army  before  I 
got  through. 

So  God's  plan  concerning  the  saving  of  this  boy 
succeeds  and  Pharaoh's  plan  miscarries,  and  before 
the  day  is  ended  Moses  is  back  in  his  mother's  arms 
with  the  shield  of  the  princess  over  him  to  guard 
him  from  harm,  and  actually  with  wages  paid  the 
mother  to  nurse  her  own  boy  who  has  now  become 
the  adopted  son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter. 

It  is  charming  to  see  these  divine  plans  working 
out.  From  the  time  that  Moses'  mother  entrusted 
him  in  the  ark  to  the  river,  to  the  time  that  she  got 
him  back  into  her  arms,  with  wages  for  his  care  and 
with  royalty  for  his  protector,  how  many  hours  do 
you  think  elapsed  ?  Moses'  mother  was  shrewd 
enough  to  figure  to  a  nicety  the  time  when  the 
princess  would  come  down,  for  she  would  never 
leave  her  baby  boy  to  scream  and  cry  uselessly  in 
the  river.  I  make  no  question  that  it  was  within 
an  hour  from  the  time  she  went  out  from  her  house 
and  deposited  the  ark  in  the  Nile,  to  the  time  that 
the  child  was  brought  back  and  was  safe  in  his 
mother's  arms. 

When  Moses  can  no  longer  be  cared  for  in  his 
home,  he  goes  to  Pharaoh's  court,  and  for  practi- 
cally forty  years  enjoys  all  the  advantages  of  court 
life  along  educational  lines.  For  we  read  in  the  JSTew 
Testament  he  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  that  meant  all  the  wisdom  there 
was  in  those  days,  because  Egypt  was  the  most 


lo8  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

cultured  land  of  that  time.  Every  advantage  that 
could  be  laid  before  him  or  poured  into  his  lap  was 
his  and  Pharaoh  himself  is  educating  this  boy  to 
bring  down  Pharaoh's  pride. 

The  forty  years  of  court  life  came  to  an  abrupt 
end.  Moses,  always  patriotic  and  loyal,  found  one 
day  an  Egyptian  shamefully  abusing  an  Israelite. 
He  defended  his  co-patriot,  slew  the  oppressor  and 
buried  him  in  the  sand.  But  the  deed  could  not 
be  hid,  and  the  day  following,  Moses  learns  to  his 
amazement  and  alarm  that  the  deed  is  out  and  he 
must  flee.  It  would  never  do  even  for  Pharaoh  to 
stand  in  defense  of  Moses,  a  member  of  the  op- 
pressed race  as  against  an  Egyptian.  Moses  knew 
that  and  the  result  was  that  he  abandoned  the  land 
of  his  birth,  and  fled  to  the  back  side  of  the  desert, 
even  to  Mount  Horeb. 

There  begins  the  second  period  of  this  extraordi- 
nary man's  life,  and  now,  again  for  forty  years,  we 
find  him  in  the  wilderness  living  the  life  of  a  shep- 
herd. It  was  in  these  years  of  comparative  soli- 
tude, I  believe,  that  Moses  learned  much  concerning 
God  and  His  ways.  In  silent  communion  with  God 
he  could  learn  lessons  that  could  not  be  learned  in 
Memphis  or  Thebes.  And  in  solitude  he  could  have 
spiritual  experiences  that  never  would  come  to  him 
amidst  a  multitude  of  people.  So  also  Elijah  learned 
much  in  the  wilderness  before  ever  he  had  his  first 
encounter  with  Ahab.  Paul  himself  after  his  con- 
version went  down  into  Arabia  where  he  tarried 
for  three  years  and  there  had  such  revelations  as 


Moses — Leader  and  Lawgiver  109 

prepared  him  for  his  future  career.  John  the  Bap- 
tist too  came  out  of  the  wilderness  to  deliver  his 
messages,  *'  Kepent,  prepare !  "  And  our  Lord  Him- 
self came  out  of  thirty  years'  silence,  and  forty 
days  of  bitter  temptation  in  the  wilderness  and 
only  then  began  His  active  ministry.  The  fact  is 
that  the  believer  can  learn  in  solitude  that  which 
he  never  can  learn  among  the  multitude.  The 
danger  of  modern  Christian  activities  is  that  in 
their  very  multiplicity  we  lose  our  personal  grasp 
on  things  unseen,  and  because  we  are  surrounded 
with  the  visible,  the  invisible  becomes  shadowy  and 
vague.  Never  must  the  worker  lose  secret  com- 
munion upward  and  neglect  private  meditation  on 
things  divine,  for  in  solitude  with  God  he  gets  his 
strength  for  service  among  the  multitude. 

At  last  the  forty  years  as  shepherd  in  the  wilder- 
ness also  came  to  an  abrupt  end.  One  day  Moses, 
as  he  had  been  doing  for  forty  years,  was  leading 
his  flock  to  the  pasturage,  and  he  saw  a  bush  burn- 
ing. Many  times  had  he  seen  burning  bushes, 
doubtless,  but  there  was  something  this  time  which 
struck  him  as  unique.  The  bush  burned  on  but 
would  not  burn  up ;  and  he  said,  "  I  will  turn  aside 
now  and  see  why  the  bush  is  not  burnt."  That 
was  the  miraculous  sign  of  the  divine  presence,  and 
there  Moses  received  the  divine  call  to  leave  his 
solitary  life  and  to  return  to  a  life  of  the  most 
strenuous  activity. 

He  declined  at  first,  and  naturally.  "  Who  am 
I,"  says  Moses,  "  that  I  should  go  and  deliver  Israel 


1  lo  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

from  the  bondage  of  .  Pharaoh  ? "  And  indeed 
Moses  might  have  made  a  very  good  argument  to 
excuse  himself  from  obeying  the  divine  command. 
He  might  have  said,  "  O  God,  do  you  not  know 
that  I  have  been  forty  years  in  this  wilderness  be- 
cause, when  I  was  in  favour  at  court,  I  struck  down 
one  Egyptian?  And  now  I  am  in  disfavour  at 
court,  and  you  tell  me  to  go  back  and  deliver  the 
nation  ?  Impossible ! "  The  argument  would  have 
been  much  stronger  than  the  arguments  which  we 
sometimes  produce  to  excuse  ourselves  from  difficult 
duty.  But  Moses  made  no  such  argument,  and 
when  God  said,  "  Surely  I  will  be  with  thee,"  he 
accepted  the  divine  commission  and  with  his  brother 
started  down  to  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs. 

It  is  worth  our  while  here  to  pause  for  a  moment, 
to  realize  that  God's  call  to  a  special  service  came 
to  Moses  in  the  midst  of  his  daily  vocation.  There 
was  nothing  extraordinary  that  morning  when 
Moses  started  for  the  pasture  land.  There  was  no 
sign  that  this  was  to  be  to  him  a  pivotal  day  in  all 
his  earthly  experience.  In  the  midst  of  his  daily 
toil  comes  the  call.  With  the  call  comes  the 
promise,  and  to  the  call  is  returned  the  loyal 
response. 

This  is  not  the  only  case  of  this  kind  in  the 
world. 

I  see  a  farmer  threshing  in  the  wine  press. 
Gideon  is  his  name.  It  never  occurred  to  him  as 
he  took  the  flail  and  went  forth  to  his  ordinary 
daily  task  that  he  was  to  receive  a  call  that  day  to 


Moses — Leader  and  Lawgiver  1 1 1 

be  the  deliverer  of  Israel  from  the  tyranny  of 
Midian.  But  that  was  Gideon's  day.  Covered 
with  chaff,  wet  with  perspiration,  suddenly  there 
comes  a  vision  and  a  call.  The  result  was  that  a 
benediction  came  to  Israel,  such  as  they  had  not 
known  for  years,  through  this  turning  of  the  man 
from  his  daily  task  to  larger  duty. 

Elisha  is  plowing  with  twelve  yoke  of  oxen  and 
he  himself  with  the  twelfth.  As  he  put  his  hand 
that  day  on  the  handle  of  the  plow  he  never 
dreamed  that  that  was  his  day.  But  that  was  his 
day  truly,  for  storming  up  from  the  south  came 
the  great  prophet  Elijah,  and  taking  his  mantle  off 
he  threw  it  over  the  shoulders  of  Elisha,  and  Elisha 
at  once  knew  that  he  was  to  be  Elijah's  successor. 

We  are  at  the  receipt  of  customs.  Matthew  sits 
there  and  has  opened  his  little  office  for  the  receipt 
of  taxes.  Never  did  he  dream  that  that  was  to  be 
the  pivotal  day  in  his  life.  But  that  day  the 
Nazarene  came  past  and  looking  Matthew  quietly 
in  the  eye.  He  said,  "  Matthew,  follow  me."  That 
was  Matthew's  day. 

Peter  has  been  fishing  all  the  night  and  is  weary, 
and  rather  disappointed  because  he  had  caught 
nothing.  In  accordance  with  the  divine  command 
he  changes  his  method  and  encloses  a  large  haul  of 
fish.  That  was  Peter's  day,  for  the  command  to 
him  was  "  Follow  me,"  and  he  left  all,  boats,  fish, 
net,  business,  partners,  and  obeyed  the  call. 

If  I  have  made  my  meaning  clear  you  will  real- 
ize that  in  these  days  the  divine  command  to  you  for 


1 12  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

larger  service  may  come  at  any  time  or  any  place. 
You  need  no  Campbell  Morgan,  no  Moody,  no  Billy 
Sunday,  no  revival  service  in  order  to  receive  God's 
call.  It  may  come  as  it  came  to  Samuel  in  the 
darkness  of  the  night.  It  may  come  at  any  time. 
Our  attitude  towards  our  Heavenly  Father  is  to  be 
the  attitude  of  all  these  men.  Listen,  and  when 
the  divine  call  comes  assume  the  attitude  of  obe- 
dience. 

Do  calls  come  in  these  days  as  they  did  then  ? 
I  believe  they  do.  Not,  perhaps,  in  the  same  way 
with  burning  bush  or  audible  voice,  but  yet  with 
the  same  clearness  and  imperative  command. 

About  fifty  years  ago  in  London,  young  Dr. 
Barnardo,  then  a  medical  student,  was  giving  vol- 
unteer service  in  establishing  a  little  school,  in  one 
small  room,  for  street  waifs  in  the  east  end  of  Lon- 
don. He  and  a  friend  acted  as  janitor,  teacher, 
everything.  One  night  he  was  closing  up  his  room 
and  the  boys  had  all  gone  except  a  little  fellow  who 
stood  by  the  stove  warming  himself.  The  medical 
student  said  to  him,  "  Go  home,  little  boy,"  but  the 
boy  never  moved.  Dr.  Barnardo  went  on  complet- 
ing arrangements  for  closing  up,  and  was  about  to 
leave  when  he  noticed  the  lad  still  there.  He 
walked  over  to  the  little  fellow  and  said,  "  Come, 
little  boy,  why  don't  you  go  home  ?  "  The  boy 
said,  "  I  have  no  home."  The  Doctor  did  not  be- 
lieve it,  because  at  that  time  he  did  not  fully  know 
the  destitution  of  the  east  end.  Finally  he  took 
him  to  his  own  lodging  and  fed  him  and  induced 


Moses — Leader  and  Lawgiver  113 

him  to  talk.  Dr.  Barnardo  said, ''  Keally,  have  you 
no  home,  little  boy  ? "  and  the  boy  replied,  "  No, 
I  have  no  father  or  mother  or  relatives ;  I  sleep 
anywhere."  "  Well,"  said  Dr.  Barnardo,  "  are  there 
any  other  little  boys  like  you  ?  "  The  little  fellow 
said,  "  Lots  of  them."  "  Will  you  take  me  to  see 
them  ?  "  said  the  Doctor.  The  boy  consented,  and 
so  at  midnight  out  they  went  through  the  narrow 
streets,  and  finally  brought  up  at  a  place  which 
they  entered  through  a  rear  alleyway.  Then  the 
boy  pointing  to  a  coal  bin  said,  "  There  they  are, 
in  there,  lots  of  them."  The  Doctor  lit  a  match 
and  looked  into  the  coal  bin.  It  was  empty. 
Nothing  abashed  the  boy  said,  "  The  cops  have  been 
after  them ;  they  are  on  the  roof."  He  then  climbed 
a  low  brick  wall,  pulled  the  Doctor  up  after  him, 
and  there  with  the  tin  roof  under  them  and  the 
winter  sky  over  them  lay  thirteen  boys  sound  asleep. 
The  Doctor's  guide  said,  "  Shall  I  wake  them  ? " 
and,  telling  the  story.  Dr.  Barnardo  says,  "  I  had 
this  one  boy  on  my  hand  and  did  not  know  what 
to  do  with  him  and  now  he  offered  to  wake  thir- 
teen more  on  me,  so  I  replied, '  No,  let  tbem  sleep.' " 

Then  and  there,  however.  Dr.  Barnardo  heard 
God's  call  to  devote  himself  to  the  outcast  children 
of  the  east  end  of  London.  That  was  Dr.  Bar- 
nardo's  day  and  as  a  consequence,  last  night  there 
slept  under  sheltering  roofs  of  institutions  started 
by  the  Doctor  over  seven  thousand  waifs  and  strays 
from  the  streets  of  the  great  city. 

Moses  heard  God's  call,  heeded  and  obeyed,  and 


114  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

down  he  went  to  Egypt,  there  to  undertake  the 
task  of  delivering  Israel  from  the  bondage  of  the 
Egyptian. 

Now  follows  the  conflict  between  Moses  and 
Pharaoh.  Notice  the  attempted  compromises  on 
Pharaoh's  part  with  Jehovah  : 

Exodus  V.  2.  Pharaoh :  "  I  know  not  Jehovah 
and  moreover  I  will  not  let  Israel  go." 

Exodus  viii.  8.  After  the  plague  of  the  frogs 
Pharaoh  says  :  "  Entreat  Jehovah  and  I  will  let  the 
people  go,"  and  when  relief  comes  (viii.  15)  Pha- 
raoh hardens  his  heart. 

Once  more  there  comes  a  turn  in  the  screw  of  di- 
vine pressure  (Exodus  viii.  25),  when  flies  have 
cursed  the  land,  excepting  only  the  Israelites'  por- 
tion. Pharaoh  calls  for  relief  and  says,  "  Go  ye, 
sacrifice  to  your  God  in  the  land."  That  was  a 
compromise, — let  them  go,  but  not  too  far  away. 
But  when  respite  comes  then  Pharaoh's  heart  is 
hardened  again  (v.  32). 

Once  more  in  Exodus  ix.  28,  after  the  terrible 
scourge  of  the  hail  the  king  relents  and  says,  "  I 
will  let  you  go."  Relief,  however,  comes  and  once 
more  the  heart  of  Pharaoh  is  hardened  (Exodus  ix. 
35),  "  and  he  did  not  let  the  children  of  Israel  go." 

In  Exodus  X.  we  have  a  continuation  of  the  great 
conflict  between  Moses  and  the  sovereign,  ending 
by  the  sovereign  saying,  "  Go  now  ye  that  are  men," 
meaning  that  the  women  and  children  must  remain 
behind.  But  Moses  would  not  accept  the  compro- 
mise.    Again,  after  the  plague  of  the  locusts  (Ex- 


Moses — Leader  and  Lawgiver  115 

odus  X.  24),  Pharaoh  once  more  relents— the  pressure 
is  terrific — and  he  says,  "  Go,  only  let  your  flocks 
and  your  herds  be  stayed."  He  knew  that  if 
Israel's  property  were  left  behind,  Israel  would  re- 
turn for  this  property,  and  again  be  under  his  power. 
To  this  offer  Moses  replies,  "  J^o,  there  shall  not  a 
hoof  be  left  behind."  Then  comes  Pharaoh's 
answer,  "  Get  thee  from  me,  take  heed  to  thyself, 
see  my  face  no  more ;  for  in  that  day  that  thou 
seest  my  face,  thou  shalt  die." 

Then  comes  the  final  turn  to  the  screw  of  the  di- 
vine overwhelming  pressure,  in  the  slaying  of  the 
first  born,  and  all  Egypt  cries  in  woe  and  despair. 
Then  it  is  that  quickly  Pharaoh  sends  for  Moses  in 
the  night  and  says,  "  Go,  men,  women,  children, 
flocks,  herds,  everything,  and  pray  for  me  "  (Ex- 
odus xii.  31-33). 

That  is  the  outcome  of  the  conflict  between  Je- 
hovah and  Pharaoh, — Pharaoh  crushed  and  Jehovah 
and  His  people  triumphant. 

So  Israel,  led  by  this  wondrous  leader,  marches 
out  gloriously  and  Miriam  on  the  farther  side  of 
the  Ked  Sea  sings  with  her  damsels  their  song  of 
deliverance. 

After  this  for  forty  years  Moses  is  substantially 
in  the  same  general  vicinity  of  Sinai,  where  he 
had  been  previously  for  forty  years,  only  now  he  is 
a  leader  of  people  and  not  a  leader  of  sheep.  Here 
he  becomes  legislator,  being  the  divine  medium 
through  whom  God's  laws  (the  decalogue  and  other 
laws)  are  transmitted  to  men. 


n6  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

This  leads  us  to  say  that  in  these  later  days  since 
the  discovery  of  the  Hammurabi  code  of  laws,  it  is 
customary  for  some  critics  to  say  that  the  Mosaic 
Code  is  copied  from  that  of  Hammurabi,  and  that 
there  is  nothing  original  about  the  Mosaic  legisla- 
tion. To  this  our  brief  reply  is  that  the  Ham- 
murabi Code  is  saturated  with  idolatry.  The 
Mosaic  Code  is  pure  from  all  idolatrous  tendencies. 
It  is  based  on  that  declaration,  "  Hear,  O  Israel, 
the  Lord  our  God  is  one  God  and  thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart."  In  the 
second  place  the  Hammurabi  Code  shows  signs  of 
licentious  worship  in  making  definite  legal  pro- 
vision for  what  are  called  the  "  Sisters  of  the 
Gods,"  under  whose  ceremonies  there  lay  a  sub- 
stratum of  gross  licentiousness. 

The  Mosaic  Code  is  free  from  all  that. 

In  looking  at  the  character  of  Moses  we  realize 
that  of  all  Old  Testament  worthies  he  stands  easily 
the  chief.  There  arose  not  a  prophet  like  unto  him 
to  the  end  of  the  history  of  Israel.  As  Paul  in  the 
New  Testament  is  easily  the  first  of  the  apostles, 
so  Moses  is  easily  the  first  of  the  prophets.  In 
view  of  this  fact  we  are  much  astonished  when  we 
find  such  a  contrast  between  two  experiences  in 
this  man's  wonderful  career. 

You  remember  in  the  matter  of  the  golden  calf 
as  told  in  Exodus  xxxii.  Moses  pleads  for  his  people. 
In  bitter  sorrow  over  their  defection,  and  anxiety 
over  their  fate,  he  says,  "  Forgive  their  sin  and  if 
not,  blot  me,  I  pray  thee,  out  of  thy  book." 


Moses — Leader  and  Lawgiver  117 

That  is  very  wonderful.  It  is  as  though  he  said, 
"  If  they  must  perish  or  I  must  perish,  let  me  per- 
ish,— only  forgive  them."  That  was  almost  divine. 
Yet  later  on,  as  told  in  Numbers,  the  eleventh  chap- 
ter, when  Israel  lusts  after  flesh  and  cries,  *'  Give 
us  flesh  to  eat,"  you  find  Moses  occupying  a  posi- 
tion that  is  fairly  startling. 

It  seems  that  the  burden  of  the  people  had  so 
worn  on  this  man  that  he  lost  control  of  himself 
and  as  he  hears  the  people  weep  from  afar,  Moses 
is  displeased.  Turning  to  God  he  cries  with  ter- 
ribly faultfinding  spirit,  "  Wherefore  hast  thou 
dealt  ill  with  thy  servant  and  wherefore  have  I  not 
found  favour  in  thy  sight,  that  thou  layest  the  bur- 
den of  all  this  people  upon  me  ?  Have  I  conceived 
all  this  people  ?  Have  I  brought  them  forth  that 
thou  shouldst  say  unto  me,  carry  them  in  thy 
bosom  as  a  nursing  father  carryeth  the  sucking 
child,  unto  the  land  which  thou  swearest  unto  their 
fathers.  Whence  should  I  have  flesh  to  give  unto 
all  this  people  ?  for  they  weep  unto  me  saying, 
Give  us  flesh  that  we  may  eat.  I  am  not  able  to 
bear  all  this  people  alone,  because  it  is  too  heavy 
for  me.  And  if  thou  deal  thus  with  me,  kill  me, 
I  pray  thee,  out  of  hand." 

That  is  most  startling.  Is  that  the  same  man 
who  plead  so  to  save  the  people  ?  It  simply  shows 
how  fallible  the  greatest  of  men  are,  and  how  he 
who  thinks  that  he  stand eth  should  take  heed  lest 
he  fall. 

It  was  speaking  unadvisedly  with  his  lips  that 


1 18  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

prevented  this  man  from  entering  into  the  land. 
To  see  the  land  was  his  privilege  but  to  enter  the 
land  was  denied.  And  so,  on  Nebo,  Moses  looks 
over  the  land  from  south  to  north,  then  passes 
away,  and  Jehovah  buries  him,  and  to  this  day  no 
man  knows  the  place  of  his  sepulchre. 

But  in  Jude  we  are  given  a  flash  of  light  upon 
that  burial  ceremony  on  Mount  Nebo,  for  Jude  says 
that  Satan  contended  for  the  body  of  Moses  and 
the  Archangel  resisted.  Why  do  you  think  Satan 
desired  the  body  of  Moses,  and  why  did  God  send 
the  Archangel  to  resist  him  ?  My  interpretation  is 
this :  Down  in  Egypt,  from  which  the  people  had 
come  out,  it  was  customary  to  deify  their  rulers. 
Israel  tended  always  to  idolatry,  and  there  was 
danger  that  when  Moses  was  dead  Israel  would 
deify  their  leader  and  start  to  worship  him.  Their 
idolatrous  tendency  is  abundantly  proved  (2  Kings 
xviii.  4)  in  the  case  of  the  brazen  serpent  which 
they  brought  up,  and  to  which  even  in  Hezekiah's 
day  they  were  burning  incense. 

Had  Satan  got  that  body  and  brought  it  down 
into  the  camp  there  was  danger  that  the  people 
would  embalm  it  and  worship  it.  That  (I  think)  is 
one  of  the  causes  of  the  conflict  between  Satan  and 
the  Archangel,  for  God  would  not  allow  Moses' 
body  to  be  thus  abused,  and  would  never  let  Moses, 
the  proclaimer  of  one  God,  be  the  occasion  of 
idolatry. 

It  has  always  been  to  me  a  comfort  that  after  all 
Moses  did  get  into  the  land,  for  on  the  Mount  of 


Moses — Leader  and  Lawgiver  119 

Transfiguration  it  was  his  privilege  to  enter.  Be- 
fore bis  death,  from  the  southern  extremity  of  the 
land  he  looked  over  to  the  northern  boundary  line 
where  Mount  Hermon  could  be  easily  seen.  When 
Moses  came  to  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  on  the 
north  of  the  land,  he  entered  and  looked  clean  over 
to  the  south.  Oh,  if  we  could  only  know  what 
flashed  through  Moses'  mind  as  from  the  northern 
mountain  he  saw  the  southern  mountain  where  he 
had  breathed  his  last  in  his  earthly  pilgrimage  ! 

Yet  once  more  Moses  appears.  This  time,  when 
on  the  Isle  of  Patmos  John  sees  and  hears  things 
divine,  there  suddenly  breaks  upon  him  a  great 
song  as  of  a  multitude  singing,  and  he  listens  to 
the  word  of  the  song.  Lo  and  behold  it  is  the 
"song  of  Moses  and  the  Lamb."  In  that  better 
land  the  evangelist  says  he  heard  the  name  of  the 
Eedeemer  and  of  Moses  coupled  together.  The 
name  of  Moses  is  the  only  name  in  Heaven  coupled 
with  the  name  of  the  Son  of  God. 

There  Moses  is  exalted  above  all  the  sons  of  men 
and  that  makes  me  believe  that  Moses  was  the 
grandest  man  that  ever  lived  or  ever  will  live,  he 
being  the  only  man  whose  name  is  taken  on  the 
lips  of  the  redeemed  in  glory  in  conjunction  with 
the  name  of  the  Eedeemer  Himself.  Surely,  then, 
we  can  say  with  more  of  emphasis  than  was  said  in 
the  Old  Testament — There  has  not  been  seen  a 
prophet  like  unto  this  one  with  whom  God  spake 
face  to  face. 


YII 

THE  FIVE  GATES  OF  APPROACH  TO  THE 
HUMAN  MIND 

WE  are  facing  each  other  at  this  moment, 
but  you  do  not  see  me  and  I  do  not  see 
you.  No  one  ever  saw  me,  not  even 
my  mother.  She  saw  my  body,  she  saw  my  gar- 
ments, but  me,  never.  Nobody  has  ever  seen  me 
excepting  He  of  whom  the  Psalmist  speaks  so  won- 
drously  in  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-ninth  Psalm. 
I  dwell  hidden  from  all  observation,  and  no  man 
can  reach  me  unless  he  reaches  me  through  one  of 
five  gates  of  approach. 

It  is  of  great  importance,  therefore,  that  preach- 
ers and  teachers  should  understand  how  best  to  use 
these  five  gates  of  approach  to  the  mind  of  the 
hearer  in  the  congregation  or  of  the  scholar  in  the 
class.  These  five  gates  are,  eye  gate,  ear  gate, 
nose  gate,  mouth  gate,  touch  gate.  We  call  them 
the  five  senses.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  imagine 
a  sixth  sense.  Through  these  five  senses  all  knowl- 
edge of  the  external  world,  all  communication  with 
our  fellow  men  has  to  enter.  Of  these,  by  far  the 
most  rapid  is  the  sense  of  sight.  More  marches 
into  the  human  mind  through  eye  gate  than 
through  all  the  other  gates  put  together.  This  is 
especially  true  in  childhood. 

1 20 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind         1 2 1 

The  next  most  rapid  method  of  approach  to  the 
human  mind  is  through  ear  gate.  When  you  cut 
out  what  we  have  learned  through  eye  gate  and 
ear  gate,  you  cut  out  the  enormous  majority  of  the 
facts  that  find  entrance  to  the  human  mind.  Where 
eye  gate  and  ear  gate  collide,  that  is  to  say,  where 
different  facts  appeal  simultaneously  to  those  two 
gates,  eye  gate  has  the  right  of  way  and  ear  gate 
is  pushed  to  the  side.  It  is  impossible  to  appeal  to 
a  human  being  through  ear  gate  while  at  the  same 
time  some  one  else  is  appealing  to  him  through  eye 
gate.  Dr.  Moore,  your  President,  is  a  noted  speaker, 
but  if  he  were  on  this  platform  and  were  talking 
to  you  about  the  most  fascinating  thing  in  the 
world,  I  would  wipe  him  out  in  a  moment  if  you 
would  allow  me  to  appeal  simply  to  your  eyes. 
Imagine  him  standing  there  and  I  here.  He  is 
addressing  you  on  a  most  important  theme.  But  if 
I  begin  to  do  this  (here  the  speaker  took  off  his 
coat  and  put  it  under  a  chair),  he  is  finished. 
(Great  laughter.)     I  have  proved  what  I  said. 

It  is,  therefore,  imperative  for  the  preacher  or 
teacher  to  learn  how  most  wisely  to  use  eye  gate 
in  connection  with  ear  gate.  When  the  speaker 
has  the  attention  of  his  hearers  through  these  two 
gates  simultaneously,  then  nothing  can  intervene. 
The  mischievous  boy  in  Sunday-school  who  has 
brought  the  seductive  pin,  forgets  all  about  his  pin 
when  he  is  seeing  something  and  having  it  ex- 
plained ;  the  pin  has  a  moment  of  rest. 

It  is  not  often  possible  to  appeal  to  an  audience 


122  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

through  nose  gate.  I  have  done  it,  but  the  op- 
portunities are  rare.  At  one  time  we  had  the 
lesson  of  Mary  anointing  the  Saviour's  feet,  and  it 
is  said  that  the  house  was  filled  with  the  fragrance 
of  the  ointment.  Before  the  lesson  was  read  in 
Sundaj^-school  I  said,  "All  teachers  to  the  plat- 
form, please."  They  all  rose  and  came.  "All 
teachers  take  out  their  handkerchiefs,  please." 
All  did  so.  Of  course,  the  school  was  on  edge, 
thinking,  "  What  is  he  going  to  do  now  ?  "  Then 
I  produced  a  bottle  of  cologne  and  poured  the 
whole  bottle  over  their  handkerchiefs  saying, 
"  Teachers,  go  to  your  classes,  waving  hand- 
kerchiefs ;  scholars,  smell."  Of  course,  the  whole 
house  smelt  of  cologne.  I  asked,  "  Does  it  smell 
sweet?"  "Yes,  sir."  "Well,  to-day  we  have  a 
lesson  telling  of  a  house  smelling  far  sweeter. 
Turn  to  the  lesson." 

When,  however,  eye  gate  and  ear  gate  are  closed, 
as  in  the  case  of  Hellen  Keller,  we  have  to  fall 
back  on  touch  gate,  and  it  is  surprising  to  see  how 
sensitive  touch  gate  is  when  eye  gate  and  ear  gate 
are  shut.  Some  things  can  never  pass  through 
touch  gate,  such  as  colour  and  perfume,  but  armies 
of  facts  have  marched  into  Helen  Keller's  mind 
through  touch  gate. 

If  in  a  Sunday-school  class  it  is  possible  to  com- 
bine an  attack  on  eye  gate,  ear  gate  and  touch  gate 
simultaneously,  then  you  have  got  firm  hold  of  that 
scholar.  It  is  impossible  for  a  scholar  to  move 
while  looking,  listening  and  touching.     He  is  a 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        i  23 

clever  teacher  who  knows  how  to  march  facts  into 
the  human  mind  through  three  gates  simultane- 
ously. 

I  am  going  to  deal  this  morning  with  the  attack 
on  eye  gate,  one  often  neglected  by  preacher  and 
by  Sunday-school  teacher.  I  say  by  preacher,  for 
alas  !  preachers  fail  to  use  eye  gate  with  the  younger 
members  of  their  congregations.  It  can  be  most 
successfully  done  if  you  will  only  take  the  pains. 
Object  sermons  are  welcome  not  to  children  only, 
but  to  the  adults  in  every  congregation  that  you 
possibly  can  minister  to.     This  is  my  experience. 

When  I  became  Superintendent  of  City  Missions 
and  began  preaching  in  churches  up-town  I  went  to 
a  very  conservative  Presbyterian  church  where  I 
knew  I  should  have  to  preach  frequently.  I  said  to 
the  elders,  "  May  I  preach  five  minute  object  ser- 
mons to  the  children  ?  "  Courtesy  prevented  them 
from  saying,  "  No,"  so  the  clerk  of  the  session  said, 
"  Well,  you  might  try  it."  The  following  Sunday 
I  preached  an  object  sermon  of  about  five  minutes. 
The  next  day  I  got  a  letter  from  the  clerk  of  the 
session  saying,  "  The  session  desires  me  to  say  that 
you  can  preach  as  many  object  sermons  as  you 
want  in  this  pulpit." 

The  adults  are  just  as  well  pleased  as  the  young 
people  with  object  sermons  but,  as  minister,  you 
woo  and  win  the  young  people  by  a  five  to  eight 
minute  object  talk  as  you  can  do  in  no  other  pos- 
sible way,  so  that  they  look  forward  with  a  great 
deal  of  pleasure  to  going  to  church.     At  Bar  Harbor, 


124  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

where  I  preach  every  summer,  they  often  'phone 
me,  "  Are  you  going  to  preach  to  the  children  this 
morning  ?  "  If  I  should  say  no,  which  I  never  do, 
the  children  would  stay  away ;  if  I  say  yes,  the 
children  come. 

Now  the  underlying  principle  in  the  handling  of 
objects  for  spiritual  purposes  is  this :  Everything 
material  has  some  likeness  to  something  spiritual. 
That  is  a  law  without  any  exception.  Let  me  re- 
peat it.  Everything  material  has  some  likeness  to 
something  spiritual.  That  is,  there  is  an  analogy 
alonff  some  line  or  other  between  everv  material 
thing  and  some  spiritual  thing.  It  is  for  the 
preacher  or  the  teacher  to  discern  those  likenesses, 
those  analogies,  so  as  to  be  able  to  rightly  handle 
the  material  object  for  spiritual  purposes. 

Out  in  the  East  a  missionary  told  me  this  spring 
that  the  syllogism  does  not  touch  the  Eastern  mind. 
But  a  parable  or  analogy  will  convince  an  Oriental, 
and  he  says,  "  That  settles  it."  Just  so  a  parable  or 
an  analogy  will  reach  a  child  where  a  syllogism 
will  fall  flat.  Learn  then,  my  friend,  the  analogy 
between  things  material  and  things  spiritual,  be- 
tween the  visible  and  the  invisible. 

How  can  we  do  this  ?  By  patient  work.  In  the 
days  when  I  was  trying  to  learn,  I  would  sit  down 
in  my  study,  pick  out  any  object  in  the  room  and 
force  my  mind  to  discover  an  analogy  between  that 
object  and  some  spiritual  truth.  Not  all  objects 
are  equally  rich  in  analogies,  I  know  full  well ;  but 
it  will  do  you  good  to  sit  down  and  force  your  mind 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        1 25 

to  draw  even  obscure  analogies.  Slowly  you  will 
become  adept  in  seeing  just  where  the  attractive 
analogies  lie.  I  was  aroused  when  I  was  a  student 
in  the  Seminary  to  paying  attention  to  this  matter 
of  object  teaching  by  an  address  I  heard  given  in  a 
Sunday-school  convention  by  the  then  noted  Sun- 
day-school worker,  Edward  Eggleston.  I  went  to 
that  Sunday-school  convention  with  the  superb  self- 
conceit  of  a  theological  student  who  thought  he 
knew  it  all.  I  soon  found  I  knew  nothing,  and 
then  I  began  to  learn. 

Turn  now  to  these  analogies,  and  permit  me  to 
give  you  specimens  of  analogies  between  things 
material  and  things  spiritual.  Here  is  a  watch. 
That  watch  in  many  points  is  like  a  boy.  One  time 
in  a  class  I  said  to  a  boy,  "  In  what  respect  is  this 
watch  like  a  boy  ?  "  The  boy  promptly  said,  "  It 
has  two  hands." 

"  Yes.     Are  the  hands  pointing  right  ?  " 
'  "  I  suppose  so." 

"  Do  your  hands  always  point  right  ?  " 

Shamefacedly  he  said,  "  JSTo."  How  swiftly  that 
arrow  sped  to  its  mark  ! 

Then  we  went  on  and  the  following  analogies 
were  developed :  every  watch  has  an  inside  and  an 
outside  and  so  has  a  boy.  The  inside  of  that  watch 
is  far  more  important  than  the  outside,  and  so  it  is 
with  a  boy ;  for  as  a  watch  with  a  gorgeous  out- 
side, jewelled,  and  a  poor  inside  is  a  poor  watch,  and 
one  with  a  pewter  outside  but  a  good  inside  is  a 
good  watch,  so  a  boy  or  girl  dressed  up  to  the  nines, 


126  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

and  foul  inside  is  a  poor  boy  or  girl,  and  a  poorly 
dressed  boy  or  girl,  clean  inside,  is  of  more  value 
than  gold,  yea,  than  much  fine  gold.  That  watch 
needs  winding  up  every  day,  and  so  does  a  boy. 
Boys'  bodies  all  need  winding  up  three  times  a  day, 
breakfast,  dinner  and  supper,  and  every  right  kind 
of  boy  gets  a  twist  or  two  between  meals  if  he  can 
get  hold  of  something  to  eat ;  that  is  right.  But  a 
boy  has  not  only  a  body,  he  has  a  mind,  and  his 
mind  needs  to  be  wound  up.  What  is  the  public 
school  for  ?  To  wind  up  his  mind.  "What  is  college 
for  ?  To  wind  up  his  mind.  What  is  the  theolog- 
ical seminary  for?  To  wind  up  your  minds.  It 
is  a  good  thing  to  keep  your  mind  wound  up.  But 
a  boy  has  more  than  a  body  and  a  mind,  he  has  a 
soul,  and  the  soul  has  to  be  wound  up.  Who  can 
wind  it  up  ?  Only  God.  See  how  quickly  these 
analogies  come.  This  watch  is  now  invisible  to 
anybody  here  (putting  it  in  his  pocket).  Does  the 
watch  say,  "Ha,  nobody  can  see  me  now,  I  am 
going  to  stop "  ?  Oh,  no.  It  is  a  good  watch ; 
light  or  dark,  it  keeps  on  doing  its  work.  But 
many  a  boy  and  girl  says,  "  Teacher  is  not  seeing 
now,  it  is  my  chance."  See  what  a  good  example 
the  watch  sets  ;  light  or  dark,  visible  or  invisible,  it 
is  working  all  the  time  as  well  as  it  knows  how. 

This  watch,  if  it  goes  right,  goes  according  to  the 
sun.  If  when  the  sun  is  at  the  zenith  this  watch 
does  not  say  twelve  o'clock,  the  watch  is  wrong. 
The  sun  governs  all  watches,  and  they  are  right  or 
wrong  according  as  they  synchronize  with  it.     So 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        127 

I  am  right  or  wrong  according  as  I  synchronize 
with  whom  ?  With  Him  whom  we  call  the  Sun  of 
Kighteousness.  When  I  keep  time  with  Him,  then 
I  am  right ;  if  not,  I  am  wrong. 

Suppose  you  had  a  lesson  on  Jesus'  utterances 
with  regard  to  the  bread  of  life.  "  I  am  the  bread 
of  life  ;  your  fathers  ate  the  manna  in  the  wilder- 
ness and  they  died ;  if  any  man  eat  of  this  bread, 
he  shall  live."  Take,  then,  into  the  pulpit,  or  into 
the  class,  some  bread.  What  is  this  for?  To 
satisfy  my  hunger  and  give  me  strength.  Bread 
stands  for  all  bodily  nourishment,  and  God  so 
made  us  that  we  need  it,  and  it  is  right  that  we 
should  have  it.  But  there  are  more  kinds  of  hunger 
than  one ;  there  is  the  hunger  I  feel  in  my  stom- 
ach ;  there  is  the  hunger  I  feel  in  my  mind.  Every 
question  a  boy  asks  is  a  sign  that  he  is  hungry, 
otherwise  he  would  not  ask  it ;  he  is  hungry  for 
knowledge.  A  boy  says  to  me,  "  Where  is  Ant- 
werp, that  the  Germans  have  just  taken  ?  I  am 
anxious  to  know."  If,  in  reply,  I  offer  him  a  piece 
of  bread,  will  that  satisfy  his  mental  hunger  ? 
What  does  he  want  to  satisfy  this  mental  hunger  ? 
A  geography.  I  hand  him  a  geography  and  I  say, 
*'Look  at  the  map  of  Belgium  there."  He  does  so 
and  is  satisfied.  All  books,  all  educational  institu- 
tions, have  for  their  object  the  satisfying  some  kind 
of  mental  hunger.  I  supply  the  boy's  lody  with 
bread,  I  supply  the  boy's  mind  with  facts. 

But  the  boy  has  a  different  hunger.  He  is  anx- 
ious to  know  what  to  do  about  his  sins.     He  knows 


128  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

he  is  a  transgressor;  he  knows  that  he  cannot 
cleanse  his  own  heart.  The  boy  is  hungry  for 
spiritual  knowledge,  and  I  hand  him  an  arithmetic. 
Will  that  help  him?  AVhat  does  he  need?  He 
needs  the  Book  which  contains  the  story  of  Him 
who  is  the  bread  of  life,  and  you  point  him  to  this 
Book.  So  physical  hunger  may  be  met  by  bread, 
mental  hunger  is  met  by  books,  but  spiritual  hun- 
ger may  be  met  only  by  Him  who  is  the  bread  of 
Hfe. 

Take  another  illustration.  This  I  never  used 
before  last  Sunday,  but  last  Sunday  I  preached 
to  a  very  large  mission  congregation  spilling  over 
into  side  rooms,  on  the  complaint  brought  against 
Paul  in  Thessalonica  where  the  people  said,  "  These 
that  have  turned  the  world  upside  down  are  come 
hither  also."  I  held  up  a  large,  very  handsome 
vase  and  said,  "  See ;  I  have  a  lot  of  these  vases 
on  the  mantelpiece  at  home,  and  if  I  come  out  to 
breakfast  and  find  them  all  upside  down,  I  say, 
*What  is  the  matter  with  the  servant  girl  this 
morning?  She  must  be  crazy.'"  What  would  I 
do  ?  Go  around  and  turn  them  all  right  side  up. 
What  did  they  say  about  Paul  ?  "  This  man  turns 
the  world  upside  down."  Is  that  true  ?  Yes,  be- 
cause the  world  was  then  upside  down,  and  if  you 
turn  it  upside  down  again,  you  turn  it  right  side 
up.  We  are  upside  down,  and  what  does  God  want 
to  do  with  us  ?  Nothing  but  what  Paul  wanted  to 
do — turn  us  upside  down  again,  so  that  we  may  be 
right  side  up. 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind       1 29 

You  see,  I  am  using  only  simple  things ;  I  am 
not  using  ornate,  complex  objects,  and  I  never  do. 
If  you  go  into  complex  object  teaching,  you  will 
surprise  and  delight  more  than  you  will  profit. 
That  is  the  danger  of  all  of  these  electrical  experi- 
ments and  clever  chemical  experiments,  both  with 
adults  and  children  ;  they  will  say,  "  My,  wasn't  he 
clever  ?  "  and  will  forget  the  truth  you  wanted  to 
impart.  Therefore,  the  utmost  simplicity  is  what 
I  would  recommend  to  any  young  man  trying  in 
the  Sunday-school  or  in  the  pulpit  to  use  objects. 

Here  is  a  bunch  of  keys.  To  me  that  is  very 
valuable.  JSTo  two  keys  in  that  bunch  will  open 
the  same  lock.  This  is  a  key  to  my  apartment; 
this  is  a  key  to  my  door  in  the  ofiice ;  this  is  a  key 
to  the  compartment  inside  the  safe  where  valuables 
are  kept.  Every  key  has  its  own  door  that  it 
opens.  These  keys  open  things  material — doors, 
desks,  safes.  Are  they  the  only  kind  of  keys  that 
there  are  ?  No.  There  are  compartments  of  knowl- 
edge that  I  want  to  get  into,  and  these  keys  will 
not  help  me  there.  Books  are  keys  to  mental  store- 
houses of  priceless  treasure.  Every  good  book  is  a 
key  to  a  priceless  inheritance ;  every  bad  book  is 
a  key  to  the  bottomless  pit.  See,  then,  how  care- 
fully I  must  use  my  keys.  The  public  school  is 
offering  you  boys  and  girls  keys;  the  college  is 
offering  you  young  men  and  women  keys.  If  you 
should  see  me  go  down  the  James  Eiver  and  throw 
this  bunch  of  keys  into  the  water,  you  would  say, 
"  What  is  the  matter  with  him ;  has  he  lost  his 


130  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

senses  ?  "  Yet  boys  and  girls  in  the  public  schools 
throw  their  keys  into  the  water ;  they  will  not  use 
them  ;  alas  I  what  is  the  matter  with  them  ? 

Then  there  are  keys  to  things  spiritual,  and 
many  throw  those  keys  away.  This  is  a  key  to 
everything  spiritual  (indicating  Bible).  There  is 
the  key  to  eternal  life. 

ISTow  do  you  see  that  in  all  of  these  analogies  I 
work  always  from  the  material  towards  the  mental 
and  then  the  spiritual,  because  that  is  the  way  we 
are  constituted.  The  first  that  appeals  to  us  is  the 
physical,  then  the  intellectual,  then  the  spiritual, 
and  the  scholars  will  follow  your  thoughts  steadily 
along  those  lines. 

Here  is  another  very  little  thing.  This  is  a  com- 
pass, that  I  wear  on  my  watch-chain.  What  is  the 
use  of  that  compass  ?  To  guide  me.  There  is  the 
needle  that  points  to  the  north  and  the  south.  If 
I  am  in  the  forest  and  do  not  know  which  way  is 
out,  but  know  that  I  ought  to  go  north,  and  the 
sun  is  beclouded  so  that  I  cannot  see  it,  I  take  out 
my  compass,  look  at  it  and  say,  "  Yes,  all  right." 
I  can  find  my  way  out  of  great  difficulty  with  that 
compass.  No  ship  would  go  to  sea  without  a  com- 
pass, for  on  it  often  depends  its  safety. 

Now  then,  what  is  that  like  ?  In  spiritual  things 
that  is  like  the  guidance  I  get  from  God's  Book  ; 
that  is  my  compass.  That  shows  me  which  way 
not  to  go ;  that  shows  me  which  way  to  go.  The 
Bible  is  our  compass,  and  the  man  who  refuses  to 
take  the  Bible  as  his  compass  is  as  foolish  as  the 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        131 

man  who  goes  to  sea  and  refuses  to  have  a  compass 
on  his  boat.  You  are  responsible  if  God  gives  you 
a  compass  and  you  will  not  use  it. 

Just  imagine  what  a  fine  thing  this  glass  of  water 
would  be  on  a  hot  day  when  you  had  travelled  far 
and  had  not  had  a  drink.  You  would  drink  it  with 
great  avidity.  (Pours  ink  into  glass.)  See;  too 
bad ;  it  is  spoiled.  Would  you  drink  it  now  ? 
How  easily  it  was  spoiled ;  how  quickly  defiled. 
Can  I  cleanse  it  just  as  easily  ?  No.  Easy  to  de- 
file, hard  to  cleanse.  So  it  is  with  my  heart ;  how- 
ever clean  and  pure  it  might  have  been,  if  a  little 
sin  is  poured  into  my  heart,  it  is  suddenly  defiled. 
One  lie  will  defile  your  heart ;  one  taking  of  what 
does  not  belong  to  you  will  defile  your  heart.  Easy 
to  defile.  Easy  to  cleanse  ?  No.  That  is  why  the 
Psalmist  said,  "  Cleanse  thou  my  heart,  Jehovah," 
because  he  could  not  cleanse  it  and  nobody  could 
but  only  God. 

St.  James  says,  "Behold  how  much  wood  is 
kindled  by  how  small  a  fire.  And  the  tongue  is  a 
fire."  Here  is  a  match.  (It  is  perfectly  surpris- 
ing, let  me  say  in  passing,  how  you  men  look  at 
this  match.  I  would  think  you  never  saw  a  match 
before.  That  shows  how  eye  gate  dominates.)  It 
is  a  very  simple  thing,  but  I  can  make  such  ar- 
rangements that  this  match  would  bring  about  a 
great  disaster.  I  could  have  this  chapel  mined  and 
explosives  put  underneath  and  a  long  fuse  put  to  a 
place  of  safety.  Then  all  I  would  need  to  do  to 
blow  up  the  whole  place  would  be  that  (lighting 


132  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

match).  It  can  do  terrible  damage.  When  I  was 
a  boy  in  Constantinople,  where  the  houses  are  of 
wood,  a  Greek  in  his  house,  which  was  near  ours, 
had  an  image  of  the  Virgin,  and  in  front  of  that  an 
oil  lamp  burning  day  and  night.  The  soot  from 
that  lamp  had  spread  over  the  board  wall.  One 
night  as  he  was  sitting  in  his  room  a  little  spark 
flew  from  the  lamp,  lit  on  the  soot  and  the  fire  be- 
gan to  spread.  He  said,  "  I  will  spit  you  out,"  and 
he  went  and  spat  on  it,  but  it  had  gone  too  far. 
He  then  went  to  the  pump  to  get  a  pitcher  of 
water.  The  wind  slammed  the  door  to,  and  he 
couldn't  get  in.  His  house  burned  and  fifteen  hun- 
dred other  houses  with  it,  ours  among  them.  "  Be- 
hold how  much  wood  is  kindled  by  how  small  a 
fire."  And  the  tongue  is  a  fire — that  is  the  point — 
a  tongue  set  on  fire  by  Hell  and  setting  on  fire  the 
whole  world.  To  show  what  an  evil  tongue  can 
work,  I  have  known  of  a  church  split  in  two  by  a 
woman's  tongue.  She  kept  it  going  until  the 
church  was  broken  up. 

Here  is  another  example.  You  all  have  hands. 
I  used  this  in  the  Bar  Harbor  church  this  summer. 
Even  the  adults  Kked  it,  and  a  multi-millionaire 
came  to  me  afterwards  and  said,  "  That  was  fine." 
I  say  this  to  make  you  realize  that  you  should  not 
be  afraid  to  use  object  talks  anywhere. 

What  wonderful  things  hands  are.  Without 
hands  this  chapel  could  not  have  been  built.  With- 
out hands  cathedrals  would  not  go  up.  Without 
hands  clothes  would  not  be  made.     Without  hands 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        133 

the  watch  in  my  pocket  could  not  be  put  together, 
for  no  man  could  make  a  watch  with  his  feet.  Are 
these  hands  good  things  ?  That  depends  on  how 
we  use  them.  If  1  have  a  quarrel  with  my  brother 
and  draw  off  and  smash  his  teeth  down  his  throat 
with  my  fists,  is  that  a  good  thing  ?  No.  If  my 
brother  is  sick  and  I  carry  him  a  bowl  of  broth  and 
smooth  his  pillow,  and  sit  by  his  side,  is  that  a 
good  thing  ?  Yes.  Hands,  therefore,  are  good  or 
bad  according  as  I  use  them.  They  ought  to  be 
rightly  used ;  they  may  be  wrongly  used.  They 
are  blessings  or  the  reverse,  according  to  how  you 
make  use  of  them.  What  God  intends  is  that  they 
shall  be  a  blessing  to  others. 

Your  eyes,  you  have  a  pair  of  them — no,  I  beg 
your  pardon — everybody  has  three  pairs.  You 
have  got  bodily  eyes,  which  are  wonderful  things, 
but  I  don't  want  to  stop  to  talk  about  them  ;  I 
want  to  talk  about  the  others  you  possess.  You 
have  another  pair  that  I  call  the  eyes  of  the  mind. 
Tom  comes  from  school  with  a  slate  and  an  arith- 
metic under  his  arm.  He  sits  down  after  supper 
and  starts  to  work  out  his  lesson.  Presently  he 
says,  "  I  can't  see."  What  can't  he  see  ?  He  sees 
the  figures,  he  sees  the  slate,  yet  he  says,  "  I  can't 
see."  His  big  brother,  looking  over  his  shoulder, 
says,  "  Tom,  you  have  added  there  where  you  ought 
to  have  substracted,"  and  Tom  exclaims,  "  Oh,  I 
see."  What  does  he  see  ?  Intellectual  light  has 
dawned  upon  him  and  he  sees  with  a  pair  of  eyes 
more  important  than  physical  eyes,  because  all 


134  God's  Book  and  God^s  Boy 

great  inventions  and  sublime  truths  are  the  result 
of  men  seeing  something  intellectual.  Then  there 
is  a  third  pair  of  eyes  that  all  have  but  many  do 
not  use,  and  they  are  your  spiritual  eyes,  which  see 
things  eternal,  things  moral,  things  that  lay  hold 
on  life  everlasting.  And  just  as  I  want  rightly  to 
use  my  physical  and  intellectual  eyes,  so  I  want 
these  two  spiritual  eyes  to  be  used  in  the  proper 
way.  Thus  I  have  six  eyes,  and  if  I  use  them  all 
right,  God's  blessing  then  rests  on  the  threefold 
vision  He  has  given  me,  vision  physical,  vision  in- 
tellectual, vision  spiritual. 

Here  is  a  Pennsylvania  Eailroad  time-table. 
What  is  that  for  ?  That  is  to  guide  me  when  I 
want  to  go  anywhere  to  a  place  marked  on  this 
time-table.  What  is  that  like  ?  It  is  like  God's 
time-table  given  me  in  His  Book  to  get  to  a  certain 
place.  That  Book  tells  me  how  to  get  to  Heaven, 
and  how  to  get  to  Hell,  both  of  them ;  it  guides 
me  straight  up  or  straight  down  as  I  want  one  or 
the  other.  That  Book  has  examples  of  men  who 
got  to  Heaven  and  of  men  who  did  not.  This 
time-table,  however,  would  not  be  of  much  use  to 
me  if  I  never  looked  at  it  and,  as  a  consequence, 
went  to  the  depot  to  go  to  New  York  and  sat  there 
for  hours.  A  railroad  time-table  is  not  made  to  be 
put  in  your  pocket  and  never  used  ;  and  this  Bible 
is  not  made  to  be  put  on  the  centre  table  in  the 
parlour  and  covered  with  a  doily  and  never  used.  A 
man  is  a  fool  who  never  uses  a  time-table  if  he 
travels,  and  he  is  a  greater  fool  if  he  never  uses 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        135 

God's  time-table  on  his  journey  to  tell  him  how  to 
get  from  this  world  to  the  world  everlasting. 

Here  is  a  pair  of  scales  which  deal  with  the 
whole  question  of  weighing,  and  the  Bible  has  a 
good  deal  to  say  about  weighing.  If  you  happen 
to  have  a  lesson  on  Belshazzar,  you  remember  it 
says,  "  Weighed,  wanting."  These  scales  weigh 
letters.  But  there  are  other  kinds  of  scales  ;  there 
are  scales  that  weigh  you,  and  nearly  everybody 
wants  to  see  once  in  a  while  how  much  he  weighs, 
whether  he  has  gained  or  lost.  In  Washington 
they  have  scales  so  delicate  that  they  would  weigh 
not  only  this  piece  of  paper,  but  if  I  write  my  name 
on  that  piece  of  paper  with  a  lead  pencil  and 
weighed  it  again,  the  scales  would  show  how  much 
the  lead  that  came  off  of  my  lead  pencil  weighed. 
That  is  wonderful.  Then  we  can  weigh  other 
things.  A  barometer  weighs  the  air.  We  measure 
many  things ;  the  thermometer  measures  heat ;  the 
neurometer  measures  your  nerve  power  and  your 
grip.  If  only  we  could  get  scales  that  would 
weigh  a  man's  honesty,  no  bank  in  the  world 
would  be  without  them.  A  young  man  comes  in 
and  says,  "  I  would  like  to  get  a  place  in  this 
bank."  The  president  replies,  "  Step  on  that  pair 
of  scales."  Around  the  indicator  goes  perhaps  to 
"  Dishonest."  Many  a  man  would  decline  to  step 
on  those  scales.  Suppose  there  was  a  pair  of  scales 
that  showed  a  filthy  lie  ?  God  has  got  such  scales. 
He  said  with  regard  to  Belshazzar,  "  Weighed, 
wanting."     Belshazzar  had  undoubtedly  said  with 


136  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

regard  to  himself,  "  Full  weight."  The  Bible  says 
the  Lord  weighs  the  spirits  of  men.  He  knows 
how  much  I  weigh.  If  I  am  short  weight,  what 
can  be  done  ?  Nothing  save  for  Jesus  Christ  to 
make  my  short  weight  of  unrighteousness  full 
weight  with  His  righteousness. 

Here  is  a  photograph  of  a  noted  man  in  Turkey 
to-day.  Oh,  no,  that  is  not  a  photograph  of  the 
man ;  it  is  a  photograph  of  his  face  and  of  his 
clothes.  You  all  have  had  photographs  taken  and 
have  arrayed  yourselves  in  your  best  for  that  pur- 
pose. Now  my  own  photograph  suggests  that  it 
would  be  wonderful  if  any  one  could  take  a  photo- 
graph of  my  mind.  I  wonder,  if  I  got  a  photo- 
graph of  my  mind,  whether  it  would  look  as  orderly 
as  a  photograph  of  my  body.  How  would  you 
like  to  have  a  photograph  made  of  your  mind  and 
pass  it  around  amongst  your  friends,  saying,  "  That 
is  my  mind "  ?  Probably  some  would  say,  "  Is 
that  a  photograph  of  your  mind  ?  Well,  you  need 
not  come  around  here  again."  But  God  says,  "  I 
know  the  things  that  come  into  your  mind."  He 
has  got  your  mental  photograph.  Just  imagine 
the  spiritual  photograph  of  a  debauchee,  or  a 
Bowery  bum,  or  of  a  gilded  gambler,  or  a  drunk- 
ard. Would  he  show  it  to  any  living  soul  ?  God 
has  got  our  mental  and  spiritual  photographs. 
Every  idea  that  comes  into  your  mind,  every  desire 
that  exists  in  your  heart,  is  known  to  Him.  Be 
careful,  then,  that  your  mental  and  your  spiritual 
photograph  be  decent. 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        137 

Here  is  a  little  electric  light,  used  when  I  want 
to  look  at  the  clock  at  night.  I  have  a  larger  one 
to  use  when  I  want  to  walk  along  a  dark  path  to 
see  a  neighbour,  which  shows  the  rough  places  I 
must  avoid.  That  is  a  useful  thing.  What  analogy 
is  there  between  this  and  things  spiritual  ?  You 
can  get  it  from  the  Bible,  "  Thy  Word  is  a  lamp 
unto  my  feet,  and  a  light  unto  my  path."  What 
this  is  to  my  physical  feet,  God's  Word  is  to  my 
spiritual  feet ;  it  keeps  me  from  danger,  it  warns 
me  from  pitfalls,  it  guides  me  in  the  right  way.  If  I 
wanted  with  this  light  to  go  from  here  to  the  city,  and 
there  were  no  street  lights,  I  would  not  say,  "  Oh, 
there  is  no  use  in  my  starting,  I  can't  see  the  city." 
No,  I  cannot,  but  what  can  I  see  ?  Four  steps  in 
front  of  me.  Take  those  four  steps  and  I  see 
another  four  steps,  and  when  I  take  those  four  steps 
I  see  another  four  steps,  and  thus  it  will  light  me 
to  the  city.  The  Book  does  not  show  me  the  path 
all  through  my  life  at  once,  but  it  lights  me  a  few 
steps  at  a  time,  on,  on,  until  I  get  to  that  land 
where  they  need  no  sun,  for  the  Lord  God  Almighty 
and  the  Lamb  are  the  light  thereof. 

Now  I  have  said  enough  and  more  than  enough. 
If  you  say,  ''  This  man  has  brought  us  all  he  has 
got,"  I  say,  "  Not  by  a  long  shot,  because  the  mat- 
ter of  object  teaching  is  endless."  Nature  is  brim- 
ming over  with  analogies.  I  have  used  only  what 
I  happened  to  have  with  me,  but  my  :able  drawers 
in  New  York  are  full  of  objects.  What  you  want 
to  do  is  to  study  the  analogies  between  things  ma- 


138  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

terial  and  things  spiritual.  If  your  work  along 
these  lines  is  based  on  common  sense,  the  reward 
of  your  work  will  be  actual  gain  in  power,  not  only 
on  the  Sunday-school  platform,  but  in  the  pulpit ; 
you  will  win  the  hearts  of  the  children,  and  in  that 
way  extend  your  ministry,  and  you  will  be  able  to 
bring  many  a  child  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth 
whom  otherwise  you  might  not  be  able  to  reach. 

These  children  size  things  up  to  a  nicety.  One 
time  in  Bar  Harbor  I  gave  an  object  lesson  with 
a  little  bicycle  oiler  and  a  little  sand  and  I  drew 
out  the  point  that  sand  makes  machinery  work 
hard  and  finally  stops  it,  while  oil  makes  it  move 
smoothly.  I  then  said,  "  Sand  in  a  household  is 
angry  words  that  make  friction  and  trouble  be- 
tween children  ;  oil  is  smooth  words  that  make  no 
friction.  I  will  give  you  two  drops  of  oil  to  use 
often,  and  one  of  them  is  '  please,'  and  the  other  of 
them  is  ^  thank  you.' "  The  next  day  but  one  a 
lady  sent  me  word  that  on  Monday  morning  she 
had  gone  into  the  nursery  where  her  boy  and  girl 
were  who  had  been  present  on  the  previous  day  at 
the  church,  and  the  boy  was  domineering  over  the 
girl.  Just  as  she  entered,  the  girl  exclaimed,  *'  Jim, 
you  need  a  little  oil." 

One  time  at  Jekyl  Island  I  was  preaching  to 
children  and  my  theme  was,  "  Let  your  light  so 
shine,"  illustrated  by  a  little  candle.  A  small  boy 
was  in  church  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  and  he 
never  took  his  eyes  off  of  me  as  I  explained  that 
letting  your  light  shine  was  setting  a  good  example, 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        139 

and  that  God  would  light  your  light  though  Satan 
would  try  to  blow  it  out.  Like  all  red-headed  boys, 
this  child  had  a  fiery  temper,  and  the  next  day  it 
blazed  up.  At  once  he  said,  "  My  light  has  gone 
out."  Presently  he  cooled  off,  and  then  said,  "I 
think  my  light  is  lit  again."  He  then  made  his 
nurse  put  a  candle  in  his  nursery.  She  asked  him, 
"  What  for ;  you  have  an  electric  light."  But  he 
insisted  on  a  candle.  One  time  in  the  nursery  he 
went  off  in  a  terrible  rage  and  then  said,  "  Satan 
put  my  light  out;  light  that  candle."  Presently 
cooling  down  he  added,  "My  light  is  burning 
again."  I  mention  that  to  show  that  four-year- 
olders  will  catch  hold  almost  immediately  of  an 
illustration  by  which  Christ's  truth  may  be  driven 
into  their  hearts. 

To  some  of  you  there  will  come  the  responsibility 
of  handling  eye-teaching  in  the  Sunday-school  or 
the  pulpit  by  the  stereoptioon.  I  have  made  very 
great  use  of  the  stereopticon  on  Sunday.  The  first 
time  I  ever  saw  it  used  was  in  a  High  Church  serv- 
ice in  the  city  of  London.  I  heard  that  a  rector 
was  giving  stereopticon  sermons  on  Sunday  and  I 
went  down  to  see.  The  place  was  so  packed  that 
I  could  hardly  get  in.  From  the  beginning  to  the 
end  it  was  interesting.  First  there  went  on  the 
screen  "  The  Lord  is  in  his  holy  temple ;  let  all 
the  earth  keep  silence  before  him."  Then  the  regu- 
lar Church  of  England  service  was  thrown  on  the 
screen  as  also  the  hymns.  After  that  came  pictures 
of  Bible  scenes,  only  a  very  few,  on  which  the  lee- 


140  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

turer  spoke,  making  application  of  each  picture  to 
the  congregation,  solemnly,  powerfully.  When  the 
service  was  over  I  said :  "  I  have  learned  a  lesson." 
I  began  to  introduce  that  into  our  City  Mission 
work  in  New  York.  Now  you  can  get  most 
beautiful  picture-hymns.  Kau  of  Philadelphia  has 
a  lot  of  beautiful  ones,  and  also  McAllister  in  New 
York. 

For  example,  there  is  a  hymn  picture  of  "  In  the 
Cross  of  Christ  I  Glory  "  which  exhibits  only  the 
hymn  and  a  cross.  That  is  all.  You  simply  ex- 
plain what  the  cross  means  to  the  world.  Then 
the  hymn  is  sung.  If  you  have  a  hymn  like  "  I 
gave  my  life  for  thee,"  etc.,  there  appears  on  one 
side  of  the  screen  Yan  Dyke's  Christ.  You  explain 
it  briefly  and  then  they  sing.  For  spiritual  effect, 
for  solemnity,  for  drawing  a  Sunday  night  crowd, 
I  know  of  nothing  that  in  power  approaches  the 
use  of  the  stereopticon.  It  is  not  at  all  sensational. 
It  is  not  clap-trap.  It  is  serious,  Christlike  work. 
My  only  warning  is  that  you  do  not  try  to  show 
too  many  pictures  at  one  service.  A  half-dozen 
pictures  are  enough,  besides  the  hymns.  Other- 
wise you  begin  to  confuse  your  audience  by  the 
multiplicity  of  the  pictures. 

The  moving  picture  has  come  to  stay  and  we 
have  got,  as  soon  as  we  can  get  proper  films,  to  use 
it  in  the  church.  I  am  convinced  of  this,  though  I 
am  very  conservative  in  my  theology,  as  you  know. 
As  soon  as  we  get  the  right  moving  pictures, 
we  shall  use  them.     But  when  you  come  to  the 


Five  Gates  to  the  Human  Mind        141 

psychology  of  your  audience  you  have  a  serious 
problem.     There  is  such  rapid  motion  in  the  pic- 
tures that   the  spiritual  effect  is  apt  to  be  lost. 
The  audience  is  all  excitement  to  know  what  is 
coming  next.     So  that  the  psychology  of  the  audi- 
ence has  got  to  be  carefully  watched  ;  otherwise, 
you  have  amusement,  and  not  spiritual  instruction. 
I  have  in  mind  at  present  only  one  or  two  sets  of 
films  that  I  would  be  willing  to  use  on  Sunday, 
and  one  which  I  have  used,  namely  Bunyan's  Pil- 
grim's Progress.     To  show  what  care  I  would  take 
I  will  tell  you  what  I  did  on  a  Sunday  night.     I 
gave  notice  that  no  one  would  be  admitted  without 
a  ticket,  and  that  no  ticket  would  be  given  to  any 
one  under  sixteen  years  of  age.     With  every  ticket 
a   cheap  edition  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress 
was  given,  they  promising  that  if  possible  they 
would  read  it  before  the  moving  picture  was  to  be 
put  on  the  screen.     In  addition  a  printed  schedule 
was  given   of  all   the  scenes,  the  ticket  holders 
promising  that  if  they  could  not  read  the  whole 
book  that  they  would  at  least  read  those  portions 
that  would  be  illustrated  by  the  film.     When  the 
night  finally  arrived,  before  each  film  was  shown 
an   interlocutor  spoke  up  and  said,  for  instance, 
"The  next  film  will  show  Christian  and  Pliable 
falling  into  the   Slough  of    Despond.     Christian 
alone  gets  out  on  the  right  side  and  passes  on. 
Pliable  goes  back."     Then  came  the  picture.     As 
soon  as   that  film  was  through  the  interlocutor 
spoke  up  again,  so  as  to  eliminate  all  excited  antici- 


142  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

pation  of  what  was  coming  next.  I  never  had  a 
more  solemn  service  in  my  life.  When,  at  last, 
the  day  comes  when  pictures  of  the  Life  of  Christ 
are  made,  I  would  never  consent  to  having  them 
used  without  the  audience  being  properly  prepared 
to  know  what  the  pictures  mean  and  the  applica- 
tion of  each  picture  to  the  human  heart  and  life. 


yiii 

THE  RELIGIOUS  USE  OF  THE  IMAGINATION 

THE  task  set  before  the  Sunday-school 
teacher  is  one  of  extraordinary  difficulty. 
The  teacher  is  to  make  vivid  to  the 
scholar  events  the  nearest  to  us  of  which  is  re- 
moved by  eighteen  hundred  years,  while  some  of 
them  are  removed  from  us  by  four  thousand  years. 
These  events  which  are  to  be  made  clear  to  our 
classes  took  place  in  lands  that  they  have  never 
visited,  and  conversations  took  place  in  tongues  of 
which  they  have  never  heard.  The  habits  and 
customs  of  the  people  of  Bible  times  differ  vastly 
from  those  with  which  our  scholars  are  acquainted. 
And  yet  we  are  to  make  vivid  to  them  the  events 
with  which  the  Scriptures  deal,  and  from  those 
events  we  are  to  draw  certain  practical  applica- 
tions for  life  in  the  twentieth  century.  If  it  were 
not  for  the  fact  that  the  Divine  Spirit  inspired 
this  Book  and  fitted  it  for  the  human  mind  and 
heart,  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  further  fact  that 
the  Divine  Spirit  is  willing  to  aid  us  in  applying 
the  Book  to  the  consciences  of  our  scholars,  we 
might  as  well  cease  before  we  begin,  for  the  task 
would  be  beyond  us.  You  will  realize  how  diffi- 
cult the  task  is  if  you  pause  for  a  moment  and  try 
to  understand  how  hard  it  would  be  to  make  our 
H3 


144  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

scholars  enter  into  the  life  of  Alfred  the  Great, 
into  the  times  of  the  Crusades,  or  even  into  the 
times  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  which  are  very  near 
to  us  compared  with  Bible  times. 

To  do  this,  that  is  to  say,  to  make  vivid  the 
story,  to  make  living  the  actors,  would  not  be  so 
very  difficult  if  we  could  transplant  ourselves  and 
our  classes  to  Bible  lands.  One  of  the  grand  ways 
in  which  the  preacher  and  the  teacher  can  be 
better  fitted  for  the  responsibility  incurred  is  by 
visiting  these  Bible  lands.  As  the  French  critic, 
Eenan,  has  said,  Palestine  is  the  Fifth  Gospel. 
No  one  who  has  been  through  Palestine,  for  ex- 
ample, or  into  Egypt,  but  reads  every  part  of  this 
Word  that  deals  with  those  lands  with  an  entirely 
new  view.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to  be  in  both 
of  those  lands,  and  when  1  read  the  story  of  Jacob 
at  Bethel,  his  dream,  and  the  ladder  of  the  angels, 
instantly  I  am  back  where  I  spent  the  night  and 
sitting  in  the  tent  door  after  dark  began  to  let  my 
imagination  run.  The  rocks,  the  starlit  sky,  the 
whole  environment,  comes  back  to  me  at  once, 
and  I  am  with  Jacob  as  he  lay  down  on  the 
ground  with  a  stone  for  his  pillow.  The  moment 
I  read  of  any  experience  of  our  Master  on  the  Sea 
of  Galilee,  I  am  there,  because  it  was  my  privilege 
to  sail  that  sea  in  the  quiet  evening  when  every- 
thing was  gentle  and  calm.  It  was  also  my  privi- 
lege the  very  next  day  to  pass  by  the  shore  of  that 
sea  and  witness  the  downrush  of  a  tornado  of 
wind,  so  that  in  ten  minutes  the  sea  was  whipped 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  145 

into  wild  confusion,  in  which  the  boat  on  which 
we  sailed  so  quietly  the  night  before  would  have 
had  a  very  difl3.cult  time.  One  of  the  grand  ways, 
therefore,  in  which  to  be  able  to  make  the  Bible 
vivid  is  to  go  to  the  land. 

The  next  best  way  is  by  pictures,  and  with  the 
Perry  Penny  Pictures,  which  we  can  get  now  for 
one  cent  a  piece,  we  can  make  vivid,  or  at  least 
more  vivid  than  is  otherwise  possible,  some  of  these 
Bible  scenes  and  events.  These  are  the  days  of 
splendid  photographs,  and  you  can  get  photographs 
of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula,  Egypt^  Palestine,  Nineveh, 
Babylon,  Rome,  and  in  this  way  can  furnish  your- 
selves with  a  setting  for  the  events  which  took 
place  in  Bible  times.  These  are  the  days  also  of 
stereopticons,  when  on  a  screen  to  a  whole  school 
at  a  time  you  can  set  forth  some  charming  scenes 
of  Bible  localities.  The  days  are  rapidly  coming 
when  we  shall  be  able  to  see  moving  pictures  along 
these  lines ;  they  have  not  yet  arrived  because 
religious  moving  pictures  are  still  like  angel's  visits, 
few  and  far  between.  But  you  young  men  will  see 
the  day  when  cheap  moving  picture  machines  and 
good  moving  picture  films  on  religious  themes  shall 
be  available  to  any  pastor  of  a  fair  sized  church. 
Of  course,  the  moving  picture  gives  life  to  the 
scene.  The  best  moving  picture  I  have  seen  laying 
hold  on  New  Testament  times  was  one  of  a  set  of 
rolls,  all  of  them  made  in  Palestine  or  in  Egypt. 
Never  will  I  forget  some  of  the  beautiful  scenes  of 
our  Saviour's  life  that  were  set  before  a  large 


146  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

gathering  of  men  and  women.  For  example,  one 
of  them  was  on  Bethlehem's  Plain  at  night.  You 
could  see  the  sheep  lying  down  in  masses,  their 
backs  lit  up  by  oxyhydrogen  light,  very  much  like 
sheep  in  one  of  Millet's  pictures.  You  could  see 
the  shepherds  sitting  by,  quietly  watching.  By 
and  by  the  light  strengthened  and  strengthened 
and  strengthened  until  it  became  tremendous.  The 
shepherds  arose,  bowed,  then  started  off  for 
Bethlehem.  There  is  no  scholar  but  who,  seeing  a 
picture  like  this,  would  be  charmed,  illumined,  and 
the  whole  story  of  the  shepherds  on  Bethlehem's 
Plain  would  become  enormously  more  vivid. 

Never  will  I  forget  the  arrival  of  Joseph  and 
Mary  in  Bethlehem  at  the  taxing,  Mary  riding  on 
the  donkey,  Joseph  leading  the  animal,  crowds 
coming  and  going,  they  knocking  here  and  there  : 
"  IS'o,  go  on,  no  room  here  for  you  "  ;  until  at  last 
they  lodged  in  the  stable. 

Now  there  is  an  enormous  opportunity  for  mov- 
ing pictures  along  these  lines.  You  are  no  doubt 
very  conservative.  So  am  I.  But  if  I  had  the  op- 
portunity in  this  way  to  make  the  Bible  story  vivid 
to  the  eye  and  supplement  it  by  the  appeal  to  the 
ear,  I  would  seize  it  at  once  and  thus  would  bring 
the  story  home  to  my  hearers  with  tremendous 
power. 

This,  however,  is  not  yet  possible.  What  then  ? 
The  only  recourse  we  have  is  to  make  proper  use  of 
our  imaginations.  What  we  have  seen  we  can 
describe.     He  must  be  a  dullard  who,  having  seen 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  147 

a  railroad  accident  and  having  helped  to  pull  the 
wounded  out  of  the  cars,  cut  to  pieces  with  window 
glass,  cannot  tell  that  story  vividly.  He  has  seen 
it,  and  felt  it,  and  he  can  tell  it.  The  trouble  with 
Bible  incidents  is  that  we  have  not  seen  nor 
properly  felt  them,  therefore  we  cannot  properly 
picture  the  story  to  scholars.  The  thing  for  us  to 
do  is  to  cultivate  the  imagination.  Years  ago  I 
read  Tyndall's  article  on  the  scientific  use  of  the 
imagination,  in  which  he  goes  on  to  show  the  way 
we  can  picture  to  ourselves  the  carving  out  of 
canons  and  the  laying  down  of  deltas  by  our 
mighty  rivers  in  ages  gone  by.  He  bids  us,  for 
example,  watch  in  a  rain-storm  any  little  rill  that 
starts  down  the  side  of  the  road  to  a  lower  level ; 
you  will  see  that  little  rill,  hardly  thicker  than  your 
finger  or  possibly  your  wrist,  tearing  away  earth 
from  the  side  of  its  channel,  carrying  along  debris, 
straw,  leaves,  little  twigs,  and  rushing  them  down 
the  declivity  into  some  little  lake  formed  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  hill.  When  the  rain-storm  has  passed 
and  the  water  has  dried  out,  you  see  in  that  little 
bit  of  a  diminutive  lake  a  delta  ;  you  see  earth  that 
that  rivulet  brought  down  and  deposited  there. 
That  furnishes  your  imagination  with  a  basis  on 
which  to  go  back  towards  prehistoric  times,  and  to 
realize  how  a  river  like  the  Mississippi  or  the 
Amazon  has  torn  down  the  sides  of  its  banks,  has 
unearthed  rocks  and  stones,  carried  them  in  its 
great  current  and  deposited  them  at  its  mouth, 
forming  its   vast  delta,  covering  sometimes  hun- 


148  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

dreds  of  acres,  sometimes  scores  of  square  miles.  So 
that  you  see  how,  by  using  your  imagination  and 
projecting  yourself  into  the  past,  you  realize  what 
has  taken  place  on  a  grand  scale. 

I  thought  to  myself  then,  "  That's  right ;  why 
should  we  not  use  our  imaginations  along  religious 
lines,  so  that,  judging  by  what  takes  place  to-day, 
we  can  project  ourselves  into  the  past  and  make 
vivid  things  which  took  place  two,  three,  four 
thousand  years  ago  ?  "  That,  I  believe,  is  perfectly 
possible. 

We  want,  however,  to  get  hold  of  some  funda- 
mental principle  which  will  govern  us  in  this  work 
of  constructive  imagination.  This  is  the  principle  : 
under  similar  circumstances  men  everywhere  and 
always  act  in  the  same  way.  Men  are  ever  the 
same ;  they  love,  they  hate,  they  fear,  they  hope, 
to-day,  as  they  did  forty  centuries  ago.  A  crowd 
to-day  that  is  panic-stricken  will  act  exactly  as  a 
panic-stricken  crowd  would  have  acted  a  thousand 
years  ago.  A  crowd  that  is  very  anxious  to  get  into 
a  building,  and  is  desirous  to  see  or  receive  some- 
thing there,  will  act  in  exactly  the  same  way  as  a 
crowd  did  under  the  same  circumstances  in  the  time 
of  our  Blessed  Lord.  Thus  we  can  think  ourselves 
back,  can  project  ourselves  into  the  past,  and  re- 
produce in  our  own  imagination  the  way  in  which 
men  talked,  wrought,  acted  in  the  times  of  patriarch, 
prophet  or  apostle. 

In  this  use  of  our  imaginations,  however,  we 
must  be  on  our  guard.     Kever  make  an  illegitimate 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  149 

use  of  the  imagination,  bringing  in  things  that  are 
not  germane  and  not  based  on  probable  fact.  Some 
years  ago  I  had  a  series  of  articles  to  furnish  for  a 
book,  and  among  others  I  wanted  an  article  that 
called  for  the  religious  use  of  the  imagination.  I 
wrote  to  a  noted  evangelist  asking  him  to  furnish 
such  an  article,  which  he  did.  That  article  I  never 
used,  because  his  use  of  the  imagination  was  beyond 
the  bounds  of  sanity.  He  imagined  Barabbas  in 
prison ;  he  imagined  the  day  when  some  one  came, 
and,  knocking  at  the  door,  said,  "Is  Barabbas 
here?"  The  answer  was  yes.  "I  want  to  see 
him,  I  have  come  from  Pilate."  He  confers  with 
Barabbas  and  tells  the  robber,  "  You  are  at  liberty, 
another  man  has  been  delivered  to  death  in  your 
place,  you  are  discharged."  Barabbas  is  then  filled 
with  joy  and  starts  out  from  prison.  So  far  it  is 
legitimate ;  now  comes  what  I  considered  illegiti- 
mate. He  pictures  Barabbas  seeing  a  great  crowd 
passing  in  one  direction,  excited,  hurried.  Barabbas 
says,  *'  Where  is  this  crowd  going  ?  "  The  reply 
is,  "  Don't  you  know  ?  Three  men  are  going  to  be 
crucified  out  here ;  we  are  going  to  see  it."  Bar- 
abbas joins  the  crowd,  passes  out  of  the  city  gate 
and  comes  to  Calvary.  There  Barabbas  sees  the 
one  on  the  centre  cross  ;  he  asks  who  he  is,  and  is 
told  that  he  was  condemned  to  crucifixion  while 
Barabbas,  who  was  to  be  crucified,  was  given  his 
liberty.  Then  the  writer  makes  Barabbas  under- 
stand that  Jesus  was  given  for  him,  and  makes 
the  robber  prostrate  himself  on  the  ground  and 


150  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

accept  Jesus  as  his  Saviour.  Splendid  imagination, 
but  with  no  basis  of  fact.  I  threw  the  whole  thing 
into  the  waste  basket  because  imagination  used  in 
that  style  is  not  proper.  Chasten  your  imagina- 
tion, therefore ;  give  it  proper  rein,  but  never  let  it 
run  away  wild,  as  in  this  case  I  think  it  did. 

One  of  the  troubles  with  the  Biblical  narratives, 
I  think,  is  that  they  are  so  extraordinarily  terse. 
Yery  few  details  are  given.  Take  the  miracles  of 
our  Lord ;  why,  in  a  chapter  you  will  find  four  or 
five  noted  miracles  portrayed,  but  all  in  compact 
form,  the  barest  outline  being  given  to  you.  It  is 
for  us  to  fill  in  the  outline,  to  paint  the  picture 
whose  merest  sketch  we  have.  That  can  only  be 
done  by  patient  work.  Of  course,  I  know  that 
every  one  is  not  endowed  by  nature  with  equal  im- 
aginative power.  There  are  some  imaginations 
that  are  swift,  others  are  slow.  But  my  point  is 
this,  that  every  one  can  quicken  and  cultivate  his 
imagination  so  that  however  dull  you  may  be  to- 
day, a  year  from  to-day  proper  work  will  see  you 
very  much  further  along  the  line  towards  success. 

Take  now,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  set  it  before 
you,  the  way  in  which  your  humble  servant  gets  to 
work.  We  have  the  story  of  Amram  and  Jochebed, 
Miriam  and  little  Moses  and  the  princess.  I  read 
the  story  and  then  sit  down  in  my  study,  close  my 
eyes  and  begin  to  think.  First,  I  paint  the  envi- 
ronment ;  it  is  Egypt,  of  course ;  and  I  see  a  great 
river.  On  either  side  I  see  palm  trees  ;  along  the 
banks  are  bulrushes,  a  pyramid  over  there,  and  an 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  i  51 

obelisk  yonder.  I  see  two  women  coming  down, 
and  one  of  them  has  a  baby  in  her  arms ;  the  other 
is  younger.  Down  they  come  and  I  see  them  look 
up  and  down  the  bank.  They  go  to  a  place  which 
they  think  is  good.  They  put  into  the  rushes  a 
little  basket  in  which  the  baby  is.  The  older 
woman  says  something  to  the  younger  one,  and 
then  goes  away,  the  younger  one  staying  there, 
watching.  Oh,  there  they  come ;  a  lot  of  women 
in  rich  dresses,  one  of  them  evidently  very  well-to- 
do  ;  the  others,  attendants.  Thus  I  sit  still  with 
my  eyes  shut,  and  paint  and  paint  and  paint. 

Sometimes  when  I  am  doing  that  kind  of  thing 
something  very  funny  happens.  1  remember  one 
time  I  was  repainting  this  scene,  and  I  saw  a 
crocodile  come  along  and  poke  his  nose  under  the 
basket.  I  saw  him  tip  it  over,  snatch  the  baby, 
and  disappear,  and  I  said,  "  Oh,  Moses  is  gone  !  " 
Had  that  really  happened,  what  a  disaster  it  would 
have  been!  For  that  little  ark  carried  more  of 
value  than  any  steamship  that  ever  sailed  the 
ocean,  because  it  carried  as  freight  Moses,  the 
grandest  man  who  has  ever  lived  so  far.  Then  I 
corrected  that  part  of  my  imagination,  because  I 
saw  that  the  princess  would  never  have  come  down 
to  bathe  in  the  river  where  crocodiles  were.  You 
have  got  to  guard  your  imagination. 

Go  to  work  and  paint ;  by  and  by  the  facility 
will  come  to  you  slowly.  Take,  for  example,  the 
story  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  so  short,  but  so  full 
of  useful  lessons  for  the  twentieth  century.     Sit 


152  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

down  again,  my  fellow  worker,  and  paint.  Get 
the  environment.  The  road  from  Jerusalem  to 
Jericho  is  down,  down,  down,  four  thousand  feet 
or  so.  Here  comes  a  man  on  foot.  Poor  fellow,  he 
does  not  know  that  behind  that  rock  three  or  four 
men  are  waiting  ;  they  have  bad  faces.  One  peeps 
out,  sees  that  man  coming,  and  whispers  something 
to  the  other  men.  Down  he  comes,  and  just  as 
he  gets  where  they  can  see  him  they  are  out  at 
him  ;  they  beat  him  down,  tear  oif  his  clothes,  they 
get  his  money  and  away  they  go.  Poor  man,  he 
is  in  a  hard  place.  Oh,  here  comes  somebody  up 
from  Jericho.  He  is  a  priest,  as  I  know  by  his 
garments  ;  he  will  help  him.  Oh,  he  does  not ;  he 
looks  at  him  and  passes  by.  Here  comes  another 
man,  a  Levite,  as  I  know  by  his  garb.  He  is  go- 
ing up  to  Jerusalem,  he  will  help  him  anyway.  I 
see  the  Levite  go  up  to  him  and  look  at  him  and 
pass  by.  Poor  man,  nobody  will  help  him.  Along 
comes  another  man,  a  Samaritan,  but  surely  he 
won't  do  anything  because  this  man  is  a  Jew.  He 
goes  up  to  the  helpless  man  and  looks.  Oh,  the 
conditions  of  his  wounds  !  I  see  the  Samaritan  go 
to  his  saddle-bags  and  take  out  some  oil  and  wine 
and  some  bandages ;  he  pours  the  oil  and  wine  in 
and  binds  up  his  wounds.  The  man  says,  "  Oh, 
thank  you."  I  look  at  him  and  see  him  picking  up 
the  man  and  putting  him  on  his  own  beast  and 
leading  the  beast  he  walks  by  his  side  to  an  inn, 
where  he  takes  him  off,  puts  him  to  bed,  and  nurses 
him  himself.     The  next  day  I  see  him  talking  to 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  153 

the  innkeeper ;  the  man  is  in  bed  still.  He  says  to 
the  innkeeper,  "  Keep  him  in  bed  ;  I  will  be  back 
soon  ;  here  is  some  money,"  and  off  he  goes.  When 
you  make  your  scholars  in  some  such  way  see  the 
scene,  then  you  have  got  bed  rock  on  which  to 
build  the  application  of  the  underlying  principle. 

Did  you  ever  realize  what  a  tremendous  lot  of 
modern  benefactions  find  their  prototype  in  the 
story  of  the  Good  Samaritan  ?  In  the  first  place, 
this  is  an  early  instance  of  first  aid  to  the  injured. 
He  got  to  work  and  helped  this  injured  man  before 
he  took  him  anywhere.  TKen  there  is  the  first 
ambulance  I  know  of ;  it  was  not  a  modern  ambu- 
lance, but  it  was  the  saddle  on  the  donkey,  the  best 
ambulance  that  was  to  be  had.  Then,  in  the  next 
place,  I  see  a  hospital;  he  goes  to  the  inn,  puts 
him  in  bed,  and  treats  him  like  a  sick  man;  the 
best  hospital  he  could  get.  Then  I  see  a  nurse; 
the  man  turns  nurse  himself.  Then  I  see  a  collec- 
tion, a  Saturday  and  Sunday  hospital  collection ; 
only  one  man  gives  anything  to  that  collection,  and 
that  is  the  Samaritan,  who  took  up  a  collection 
from  himself.  That  is  fine.  Almost  anybody  is 
glad  to  take  up  a  collection  from  somebody  else, 
but  to  take  up  a  collection  from  one  person  and 
that  yourself,  that  means  great  grace.  To  sum  up, 
we  have  first  aid  to  the  injured,  ambulance,  hos- 
pital, private  nurse  and  collection.  That  is  beau- 
tiful. And  the  application  of  that  to  the  twentieth 
century  is  not  very  hard  to  make. 

Take,  for  example,  another  of  these  dramatic  in- 


154  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

cidents  with  which  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 
are  brimming  over,  the  resuscitation  of  the  Widow 
of  Nain's  son.  Eead  the  story  always  first,  then  sit 
down  and  shut  your  eyes  and  think,  and  picture, 
and  paint,  and,  remember,  when  you  have  made  a 
mistake,  correct  it  and  always  try  to  make  it  a 
little  more  vivid. 

There  is  the  city  of  Nain,  a  walled  town,  as  all 
the  larger  towns  were  then.  The  gate  is  open,  and 
as  I  stand  a  little  way  off  from  the  city  I  see  a 
procession  coming  out  slowly.  Yes,  it  is  a  funeral. 
Many  times  a  funeral  has  come  out  there.  Four 
men  are  bearing  a  bier,  after  the  manner  of  those 
times,  not  closed,  but  open,  with  the  face  of  the 
dead  man  looking  up  to  the  sky. 

But  look  there,  if  you  please ;  there  is  another 
procession  coming  towards  the  city.  I  see  one 
man  leading  that  procession  towards  whom  every 
one  is  looking.  Here  the  two  processions  come, 
nearer,  nearer  to  each  other ;  they  meet ;  they 
stop.  Now  those  processions  mass  together  in  a 
compact  body.  How  do  I  know  that  they  mass 
together  ?  Because  that  is  exactly  what  would 
take  place  to-day.  If  a  funeral  procession  were 
coming  out  of  a  city  and  another  procession  were 
to  meet  it  and  if  some  one  should  stop  the  bearers 
of  the  bier  would  they  not  set  it  down  instantly  ? 
Then  both  ends  of  the  procession  would  crowd  up 
and  press  around  the  dead  body.  I  see  Christ 
there.  Right  next  the  bier  is  the  mother  crying ; 
her  friends   are  sympathetic.     Then  I  see  Christ 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  I  ^^ 

take  the  young  man  by  the  hand  and  say,  "  Arise." 
Oh,  look  !  He  is  sitting  up.  He  is  living,  speaking. 
Then  Christ  says  to  the  mother,  *'  Take  your  boy," 
and  to  the  boy  He  says,  "  There  is  your  mother." 
Then  what  ?  Then  both  processions  join  together ; 
the  bier  that  they  brought  the  boy  out  on  dead 
goes  into  Nain  empty ;  the  mother,  the  boy,  Jesus' 
followers  all  rejoicing;  and  both  processions  pour 
back  into  Nain.  Will  you  look  at  them  now  ?  It 
was  not  twenty  minutes  ago  that  the  people  of 
Nain  saw  them  pass  out  to  the  graveyard,  and 
now  the  boy  is  alive  and  walking  arm  in  arm  with 
his  mother.  How  did  it  happen  ?  Everybody  tells 
everybody  else  as  they  pass  down  the  street,  and 
the  town  of  Nain  rings  with  the  story  of  the  bring- 
ing back  to  life  of  the  widow's  only  son. 

When  you  have  got  those  things  vividly  before 
your  scholars,  then  you  can  begin  on  the  applica- 
tion of  all  of  this.  What  were  those  two  proces- 
sions ?  Out  of  Nain  goes  the  procession  of  death, 
towards  Nain  comes  the  procession  headed  by  Him 
who  is  life.  Death  and  life  meet ;  life  wins ;  the 
death  procession  marches  back  to  ISTain  a  proces- 
sion of  renewed  life.  That  is  what  Christ  says,  "  I 
came  that  they  may  have  life  and  may  have  it 
abundantly." 

I  don't  suppose  that  young  man  staggered  back 
to  town,  do  you  ?  I  don't  suppose  that  he  leaned 
on  his  mother  and  got  some  friend  on  the  other 
side  to  hold  him  and  tottered  back  to  the  city. 
Nay,  verily.    He  went  back  to  town  vigorous,  vital. 


156  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

potent.  There  is  a  difference  between  a  feeble 
life,  the  life  of  an  invalid,  and  strong  life,  the  life 
of  an  athlete,  and  Christ  says  that  He  came  that 
men  might  have  life  and  abundant  life.  That 
young  man  marches  back  into  Nain  with  abundant 
life. 

Oh,  we  all  ought  to  be  spiritual  athletes,  and 
not  spiritual  cripples.  In  every  church  half  of  the 
people  are  cripples;  many  others  are  staggering, 
feeble,  and  only  a  few  are  walking  strongly.  But 
Christ  said,  "  I  came  that  they  may  have  life  and 
may  have  it  abundantly." 

Does  this  method  strike  you  at  all  as  feasible  ? 
Surely  it  must.  But  when  you  try  it  for  the  first 
time,  you  will  find  yourselves  hampered ;  things 
will  not  go  the  way  you  would  like  to  see  them  go. 
Never  mind;  stand  by  the  work  patiently;  whip 
your  mind  into  line;  don't  let  it  scatter  fire  all 
along  the  road ;  hold  it  down  to  its  work  steadily, 
and  presently  you  will  see  that  you  are  gaining 
more  and  more  of  facility  in  the  line  of  revivifying 
events  two  thousand  years  old. 

Take  now  one  more  illustration.  You  remember 
that  in  Capernaum  at  one  time  the  crowd  was  so 
great  that  it  says  there  was  no  room  in  the  house 
where  the  Saviour  was,  no,  not  so  much  as  about 
the  door.  The  story  then  goes  on  to  say  briefly 
that  four  men  came  carrying  a  paralytic  friend  of 
theirs ;  they  tried  to  get  in  by  the  door  and  could 
not.  They  then  went  up  the  stairway  on  the  out- 
side, such  as  oriental  houses  have,  and  broke  up  the 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  157 

roof  of  the  house  and  let  their  friend  down  on  a 
mattress  in  front  of  the  Master.  The  Master  said, 
"  Son,  be  of  good  cheer  ;  thy  sins  are  forgiven."  A 
murmur  arose  of  faultfinding.  The  Master  then 
said  to  the  crowd,  "  That  you  may  know  that  the 
Son  of  Man  hath  authority  on  earth  to  forgive 
sins,  arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  unto  thy  house." 
The  man  rises,  takes  up  his  bed,  and  goes  his  way, 
and  all  men  glorify  God  and  say,  ''  We  have  seen 
strange  things  to-day." 

But,  oh,  how  short  that  story  is !  Now  it  is  fair 
with  our  religious  imagination  to  make  this  thing 
live,  to  be  actors,  so  to  speak,  as  well  as  spectators 
in  that  marvellous  scene.  Let  me  picture  it  for  you 
now. 

Since  there  was  no  room,  not  even  so  much  as 
around  the  door,  it  follows  that  the  house  was 
packed ;  otherwise  more  people  would  have  come 
in.  But  every  seat  (on  the  floor,  of  course)  was 
taken,  and  the  Master  sat  on  some  little  raised 
divan  or  platform.  Men  were  standing  by  the  door. 
How  do  I  know  that  ?  Because  to-day,  if  there 
were  an  immense  number  trying  to  get  in  here,  the 
doors  would  be  open  and  you  would  see  people 
standing  as  far  as  they  could  see  or  hear.  That  is 
what  we  would  do  to-day,  isn't  it  ?  Then  that  is 
what  they  did  then.  Outside  of  the  door  the 
crowd  was  still  rather  packed,  and  outside  of  the 
packed  crowd  there  was  a  looser  crowd,  just  as  it 
is  in  great  gatherings  to-day.  Inside  they  are  not 
aware  of  what  is  going  on  outside,  and  when  these 


158  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

four  friends  come  with  their  paralytic  friend  on  a 
mattress,  those  inside  are  not  conscious  of  what  is 
taking  place. 

Now  if  you  had  a  friend  whom  you  wanted  to  get 
in  before  an  undoubted  healer,  and  you  met  a  crowd 
like  that  outside,  what  would  you  do  ?  I  know 
what  you  would  do.  There  are  four  of  you.  The 
spokesman  would  say  to  the  crowd  out  there, 
*'  Friends,  we  want  to  get  this  man  in,  for  he  is  a 
paralytic;  we  want  to  get  him  in  to  the  Great 
Healer  ;  won't  you  make  a  little  room  so  that  we 
can  get  through  ?  "  Then  the  looser  crowd  would 
step  aside  a  little  and  the  four  men  would  move 
forward  a  few  steps  and  strike  the  solid  crowd, 
shoulder  to  shoulder.  Do  you  think  they  could  get 
through  the  crowd  without  effort  ?  If  you  and  I 
w^ere  there  and  wanted  to  get  him  in,  what  would 
we  do  next  ?  I  know  what  I  would  do.  I  would 
say,  *'  See  here,  friends  ;  we  have  got  to  get  this 
man  in  there  ;  make  room  there,  make  room  ;  we 
are  bound  to  get  in,  make  room."  Then  I  would 
begin  to  push.  Of  course,  the  paralytic  would  be 
shaken  from  side  to  side  on  his  mattress  while  they 
were  trying  to  push  through.  Then  they  got  to 
the  solid  pack,  and  some  one  of  the  four  said, 
"  No  use  trying  to  get  in  here  ;  it  is  impossible ; 
let's  pull  out."  So  they  retired,  and  set  their 
friend  down  and  wiped  their  perspiring  brows.  I 
don't  know,  but  probably  three  of  the  four  said, 
"  No  use  trying  it  to-day,  better  put  it  off."  But 
some  one  of  those  four  said,  "  I  am  not  going  to 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  159 

put  it  off  ;  I  am  going  to  get  him  in,  see  ?  "  "  How 
will  you  get  him  in?"  "  Break  up  the  roof." 
"  Who  will  pay  the  bill  ?  "  ''I  will  pay  the  bill." 
When  a  man  is  in  dead  earnest  he  is  willing  to  pay 
the  bill,  and  I  have  generally  noticed  that  where 
there  is  one  man  willing  to  pay  the  bill,  there  are 
three  that  are  willing  he  should.  The  resolute  man 
is  like  the  boy  to  whom  somebody  said,  "  How 
much  do  you  weigh  ?  "  He  answered,  "  I  weigh 
eighty  pounds,  but  when  I  am  dead  in  earnest  I 
weigh  a  ton."  So  up  to  the  roof  they  go.  Now  it 
was  customary  for  people  to  walk  on  the  roof  in 
those  lands,  and  when  those  inside  who  did  not 
know  anything  about  what  was  going  on  outside  as 
yet,  heard  the  walking  on  the  roof  it  did  not  bother 
them  because  that  was  customary.  But  by  and  by 
however  they  hear,  crack,  crack,  crack,  as  the  roof 
was  being  broken  up.  Now  they  look  up.  Cer- 
tainly if  the  master  of  the  house  was  inside  he  must 
have  looked  up  and  said,  "  Well,  somebody  has  got 
some  nerve."  Do  you  suppose  that  the  Master 
kept  on  talking  ?  Certainly  not,  because  every- 
body was  looking  up  to  see  what  was  happening 
there.  If  you  thought  this  roof  was  being  torn  up 
would  you  look  at  me  ?  Surely  not.  So  there 
is  silence.  Everybody  looking  up.  What  do  they 
see  ?  A  wide  hole,  four-square,  and  ropes  put 
across,  and  they  exclaim,  "  Why,  they  are  letting 
down  a  sick  man ; "  and  down  he  comes.  They 
couldn't  make  room  before  that  for  any  more,  but 
when  he  was  coming  down  on  their  heads  they 


l6o  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

pushed  back  and  back,  and  down  he  came  at  the 
feet  of  the  Master. 

What  are  these  people  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
room  doing  ?  If  I  were  on  this  platform,  and  a  man 
were  on  the  floor  here  whom  you  couldn't  see,  but 
who  you  thought  was  going  to  be  healed,  what 
would  the  people  on  the  outskirts  of  the  room  do  ? 
Why,  you  would  instantly  stand  on  your  feet  to  see. 

(Here  I  pause  to  say  that  some  one  of  those  four 
friends  had  far  better  brains  than  most  teachers 
have  in  modern  times,  because  he  found  out  in 
what  room  the  Master  was  and  where  He  sat, 
and  he  opened  the  hole  in  the  roof  so  that  when 
the  sick  man  came  down,  he  came  down  right  in 
front  of  the  Master.  If  those  people  had  been  as 
intelligent  as  some  Sunday-school  people  I  know  in 
New  York,  they  would  have  opened  the  hole  away 
over  in  the  corner  of  the  roof  somewhere  and  let 
the  man  down  in  a  dark  closet.  What  we  want  is 
not  only  consecration,  but  brains.  Consecration  is 
good,  but  without  common  sense  we  sometimes  go 
astray.) 

Well,  everybody  looks  at  the  Master ;  He  is  the 
centre  of  attention.  What  is  He  going  to  do  ? 
Oh,  for  a  photograph  of  those  faces  as  they  look 
intently  at  Him  to  hear  what  He  will  say.  He 
says  something,  and  instantly  most  of  the  faces 
change.  They  have  been  filled  with  curiosity ; 
now  they  change  and  are  filled  with  criticism  and 
bitter  feeling,  "  Who  is  this  who  speaketh  blas- 
phemy ?    Who  can  forgive  sins  but  God  only  ? " 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  161 

And  a  large  part  of  the  crowd  turns  against  the 
Master.  'Now  He  is  going  to  speak  again,  and  so 
there  is  silence.  He  looks  down  at  the  poor  man  ; 
He  looks  up  at  them,  and  says,  "That  you  may 
know  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  authority  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins,  arise,  take  up  thy  couch,  and  go." 

Oh,  but  all  of  this  time  you  have  forgotten  all 
about  his  four  friends.  Where  were  those  friends ; 
what  were  those  four  doing  who  had  brought  him 
there  with  so  much  toil  and  labour  ?  What  would 
you  have  done  if  you  had  gotten  a  man  up  on  the 
roof,  then  broken  the  roof  open,  and  then  let  him 
down  in  the  presence  of  some  great  healer  in  the 
expectation  that  he  would  be  healed  ?  Would  you 
have  gone  off  and  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  the  roof 
and  whistled  a  tune?  Surely  not.  What  you 
would  have  done  would  have  been  simply  this 
(here  the  speaker  lay  down  dn  platform  and  looked 
over  the  edge).  If  you  had  looked  up  there  you 
would  have  seen  four  faces  on  the  edges  of  the 
opening,  peering  down  with  intensest  interest. 

Now,  then,  the  Master  has  said,  "  Take  up  thy 
couch  and  go  thy  way."  At  once  the  man  takes  up 
his  mattress,  tiptoes  his  way  down  the  room  and 
goes  out.  Look  up ;  are  those  faces  there  now  ? 
Oh,  no.  How  do  I  know  they  are  not  there  ?  Be- 
cause if  I  had  been  there  and  seen  my  friend  going 
away,  do  you  think  I  would  have  stayed  there 
looking  at  nothing  ?  They  have  disappeared, 
leaped  down  the  stairs  and  are  waiting  at  the  door. 
Now  he  comes  out.     What  under  the  circumstances 


l62  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

would  you  have  done  ?  (You  see,  I  am  applying 
the  principle  that  men  under  similar  circumstances 
always  act  in  the  same  way.)  Why,  of  course,  you 
would  have  embraced  him  after  the  Eastern  man- 
ner. What  would  he  have  done  ?  Thrown  down 
his  mattress  at  once  so  as  to  embrace  them,  kiss 
them  on  one  cheek  and  then  on  the  other.  What  is 
the  crowd  doing  ?  They  are  gathering  around  to 
look  at  that  man  whom  they  have  seen  a  few  mo- 
ments ago  carried  up  the  stairs  with  difficulty,  now 
walking  away  like  an  athlete. 

Oh,  these  things  are  wonderful  when  once  you 
see  them,  and  the  only  way  to  see  them  is  to  stop 
and  paint  and  paint  and  paint,  until  suddenly  they 
become  living  pictures,  endowed  with  vitality. 

All  of  a  sudden  the  man  says,  "  I  thank  you, 
boys ;  but  I  must  be  off  to  my  family ; "  and  he 
picks  up  his  mattress  and  off  he  goes.  His  family 
see  him  and  they  say,  "  Well,  how  did  it  happen  ?  " 
And  whenever  that  man  afterwards  speaks  of  the 
Master  he  says,  "  Yes,  they  carried  me  to  Him 
helpless,  and  I  walked  away  as  well  as  ever." 

Now  you  see  what  I  mean  by  the  religious  use  of 
the  imagination.  You  can  apply  this,  friend 
teacher,  to  any  moving  scene  in  the  Old  or  New 
Testament,  if  you  will  only  be  patient,  and  slowly 
reproduce  a  picture.  Be  careful  not  to  make  the 
details  too  minute,  or  you  w^U  weary  your  scholars  ; 
but  make  it  living,  and  then,  having  impressed  the 
basic  facts,  deduce  from  them  the  application. 

See  what  the  application  here,  for  example,  with 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  163 

those  five  men  is.  In  the  first  place,  in  all  your 
woe,  go  to  the  Master ;  His  power  is  endless. 
Secondly,  if  you  cannot  get  to  the  Master  by  your- 
self alone,  get  some  spiritual  friend  to  help  you 
along.  Sometimes  a  combination  in  prayer,  like 
the  combination  of  effort  on  the  part  of  these  four, 
will  accomplish  that  which  one  alone  cannot  ac- 
complish. One  man  could  not  have  brought  that 
man  to  the  Master,  but  four  did.  United  prayer 
like  that  of  Nehemiah  and  his  friends,  united  effort 
like  that  of  these  four  men,  will  accomplish  wonders 
and  produce  spiritual  miracles.  Oh,  for  a  little  of 
this  wonderful  magic  touch  of  the  imagination ! 

I  will  close  now  by  giving  you  a  wonderful  bit 
of  imaginative  description  that  I  heard  Dr.  Jowett 
use  in  England  a  year  ago.  The  story  he  illus- 
trated was  the  coming  of  the  leper  to  the  Master. 
He,  standing  in  front  of  the  Master,  said,  '^  Lord, 
if  thou  wilt,  thou  canst  make  me  clean."  Here, 
said  the  Doctor^  is  the  Master ;  in  front  of  Him  is 
the  leper,  absolutely  "  impossible."  The  leper  was 
impossible  from  the  standpoint  of  the  family.  The 
moment  his  wife  saw  that  white  spot  with  the  hair 
in  it  white,  she  said,  ^'  Good-bye,  out."  He  was  im- 
possible, as  he  stood  before  the  Master,  from  the 
standpoint  of  social  life.  Some  men,  unhappy  in 
their  homes,  go  to  a  sister  or  a  relative ;  this  man 
could  not.  If  he  went  to  a  brother,  or  even  to  his 
mother,  and  said,  "  I  cannot  live  at  home,  take  me 
in,"  the  moment  they  saw  his  disease,  they  said, 
"  Go,  impossible."    This  man  standing  in  front  of 


164  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

the  Saviour  was  impossible  from  a  business  stand- 
point. He  could  not  go  to  any  man  and  say, 
"  Won't  you  hire  me,  please  ?  "  The  moment  that 
man  saw  the  spot  he  would  exclaim,  "  Get  you 
gone."  He  could  not  open  a  little  store  and  so 
gain  a  living,  for  the  moment  the  first  customer 
saw  that  spot,  that  would  be  the  end  of  it.  This 
man  standing  face  to  face  with  the  Master  was  im- 
possible from  the  medical  standpoint.  If  he  went 
to  the  best  doctor  in  the  community  and  said, 
"  Doctor,  will  you  look  and  see  if  you  can  do  any 
thing  for  me  ?  "  the  doctor  would  say,  "  Get  out  of 
this  office ;  don't  come  near  it ;  you  are  unclean." 
This  man  standing  face  to  face  with  the  Master 
was  impossible  from  a  religious  standpoint.  Any 
beggar  might  go  to  the  temple  in  Jerusalem  if  he 
was  a  Jew,  but  this  man,  if  he  came  to  the  door  of 
the  temple  and  a  priest  saw  the  spot,  would  hear 
the  command,  "Unclean,  get  out  of  the  temple; 
don't  come  into  the  temple  lest  you  defile  it." 
Here,  then,  are  the  Master  and  this  bundle  of  im- 
possibilities face  to  face.  And  this  man  did  not 
deny  it ;  he  simply  brought  his  bundle  of  impossi- 
bilities to  Jesus  and  said,  "  Lord,  if  thou  wilt, 
thou  canst,"  and  Jesus  said,  "  I  will." 

Is  it  not  grand,  to  make  a  picture  like  that  ?  Is 
not  that  worth  a  great  deal  of  toil  and  labour  and 
study  ?  I  will  never  forget  the  picture  as  he  painted 
it  so  vividly.  But  then  the  Doctor  turned  on  the 
congregation  and  said,  "You  sinner,  you  are  impossi- 
ble ;  don't  say  it  was  your  environment ;  don't  say 


Religious  Use  of  Imagination  165 

it  was  your  bringing  up  ;  you  are  impossible ;  you 
covetous  man,  you  are  impossible;  you  lecherous 
man,  you  are  impossible ;  you  vain  woman,  you  are 
impossible ;  you  are  all  impossible ;  the  only  thing 
for  you  to  do  is  what  that  man  did ;  bring  your  im- 
possibilities to  Him  and  say,  ^Lord,  if  thou  wilt, 
thou  canst,'  and  He  will  say,  '  I  will.'  " 

Now  if  I  have  aroused  you  students  and  teachers 
at  all  to  make  use  of  this  God-given  faculty,  to 
cultivate  it,  to  chasten  it,  to  stimulate  it  so  that 
you  can  make  more  vivid  the  stories  which  you 
bring  Sunday  after  Sunday  to  your  class,  then  I 
have  accomplished  that  for  which  I  thank  God, 
and  for  which  your  scholars  will  be  boundlessly 
grateful 


IX 

THE  TEACHER'S  GRAND  QUARTET 

WE  all  like  the  best  things,  and  any  one 
who  is  satisfied  with  less  than  the  best, 
provided  the  best  be  obtainable,  is  de- 
linquent. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  I  was  taking  at  one  time 
music  and  painting  lessons  simultaneously.  If  at 
any  time  my  music  master  pushed  me  hard,  so  that 
I  neglected  for  a  week  my  painting,  when  I  came 
to  the  painting  master  he  would  say,  "  What  kind 
of  a  daub  is  this  ?  What  have  you  been  doing  this 
week  ?  This  is  poor  work."  If  I  then  replied, 
"  The  music  master  pushed  me  hard  this  week  and 
I  put  rather  too  much  time  on  that  and  had  to  neg- 
lect my  painting,"  the  painting  master  said,  "What 
is  music  ?  Take  your  violin  and  play  a  tune  and  it 
is  finished ;  whereas,  if  you  paint  a  picture,  frame 
it  and  hang  it  up,  it  is  a  joy  forever.  Young  man, 
pay  especial  attention  to  painting."  If,  then,  I 
paid  particular  attention  to  my  painting  and  neg- 
lected my  music,  when  my  music  master  arrived  he 
said,  "  What  kind  of  a  performance  is  this  ?  W^hat 
are  you  doing  ?  "  If  I  said,  "  My  painting  master 
pushed  me  this  week  rather  hard,"  he  would  reply, 

i66 


The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  167 

"  Painting  ?  What  is  painting  ?  It  is  a  dead  thing. 
But  take  your  violin  and  play  and  you  make  people 
weep  for  joy.  Pay  attention  to  your  music."  I 
suppose  if  I  had  taken  lessons  in  sculpture  at  the 
same  time,  and  neglected  sculpture  for  music  or 
painting,  the  teacher  would  have  said,  "  What  are 
you  doing  ?  Music  is  insignificant,  painting  is  flat. 
But  when  you  chisel  a  statue  in  marble,  you  have 
got  a  thing  that  only  lacks  the  breath  of  life  to 
make  it  live.  Young  man,  pay  attention  to  sculp- 
ture." 

Each  one  from  his  standpoint  is  right,  because  to 
the  musician  melody,  harmony  and  tone  are  the 
only  things ;  to  the  painter  colour ;  whereas  the 
sculptor  looks  only  on  form  and  figure. 

There  are  many  teachers  who  get  discouraged  in 
their  work  because  they  do  not  realize  that  in  our 
work  of  Sunday-school  teaching  we  have  a  quartet 
of  unsurpassed  excellence.  To  this  quartet  I  want 
to  call  your  careful  and  joyous  attention. 

The  first  of  these  things  is  the  material  in  which 
we  work.  We  work  in  human  nature.  Five  times 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  we  are  told  that 
God  saw  the  work  of  His  hands  and  it  was  good. 
The  sixth  time,  after  man  arrived,  we  are  told 
that  "  God  saw  that  it  was  very  good."  Now  of 
all  humanity  the  most  promising,  the  most  delight- 
ful thing,  is  the  child.  Most  of  us  will  teach  chil- 
dren up  to  their  middle  adolescent  years.  There- 
fore, all  I  shall  say  to-night  deals  with  this  matter 
of  the  budding  child,  before  it  reaches  maturity, 


l68  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

after  which  character  becomes  consolidated  and 
crystallized. 

When  you  come  to  the  study  of  child  nature, 
you  come  to  one  of  the  most  fascinating  things 
that  possibly  can  engage  your  attention  ;  for  these 
children  are  very  bewitching.  There  is  no  better 
material  to  work  on  than  the  material  of  child 
nature.  Consider  now  some  of  these  extraordinary 
excellencies  that  the  child  possesses  by  the  very 
virtue  of  its  childhood. 

To  begin  with,  all  children  are  plastic.  By 
plastic,  I  mean  that  they  are  like  soft  clay.  We 
adults  are  not  like  soft  clay,  we  are  like  clay  that 
has  been  baked  and  is  hard.  If  you  are  going  to 
change  baked  clay,  you  have  got  to  break  it.  It  is 
hard  to  teach  an  old  dog  new  tricks.  When  a  man 
is  thirty  or  forty,  he  has  crystallized,  and  it  is  hard 
to  change  him.  But  a  child  is  like  soft  clay  in  our 
hands  and  can  be  moulded  for  his  weal  or  for  his 
woe,  according  to  the  influences  under  which  the 
child  falls.  If  you  do  not  believe  that  childhood 
is  plastic,  take  a  good  Sunday-school  class  of  boys, 
and  put  into  that  class  one  evil-minded  boy  and 
watch  him  begin  to  mould  the  other  boys.  If  you 
do  not  believe  that  the  child  is  plastic,  go  to  the 
academy  of  the  streets  of  our  cities  and  see  how 
fast  the  child  learns  all  things,  not  for  up-building, 
but  for  down-tearing.  With  childhood  you  can  do 
almost  anything,  by  the  grace  of  God,  for  its 
uplift,  for  its  moulding  into  beautiful.  Christlike 
characteristics.      That    is    one    of   our  great  en- 


The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  169 

couragements,  that  we  have  got  them  just  at  the 
period  when  every  effort  for  good  is  better  repaid 
than  it  is  in  later  years. 

Another  characteristic  of  childhood  is  that  it  is 
mercurial.  Like  the  mercury  in  the  thermometer, 
it  is  down,  down,  up,  up.  This  is  a  trying  char- 
acteristic of  childhood,  undoubtedly,  but  it  must  be 
reckoned  with.  We  make  a  great  mistake  in  for- 
getting this.  We  have  an  idea  that  children  are 
so  built  that  they  can  sit  still  and  have  us  talk  to 
them  for  half  an  hour  without  wriggling.  Now  a 
child  is  not  made  that  way.  It  is  torment  for  a 
child  to  sit  stilh  You  can  sit  still  for  half  an  hour, 
but  a  child  cannot.  We  have  got,  therefore,  to 
adapt  our  teaching  to  this  mercurial  nature  of 
children. 

These  children,  by  reason  of  their  mercurial 
nature,  can  do  two  or  three  things  at  the  same 
time,  and  do  them  all  pretty  well,  which  is  more 
than  some  of  us  can  do.  It  used  to  be  my  habit 
while  I  was  superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school  of 
the  church  to  which  I  ministered,  when  I  saw  a 
peculiarly  difficult  lesson  approaching  to  preach 
five  or  six  weeks  ahead  on  that  lesson.  I  was  do- 
ing that  one  Sunday  when  I  noticed  a  restless  boy 
sitting  by  his  teacher's  side.  When  I  had  finished 
the  service  she  came  up  and  said,  ''  What  do  you 
think  Charlie  did  while  you  were  preaching  ?  "  I 
said,  "I  don't  know."  She  replied,  "He  had  a 
gutta-percha  watch-chain  and  he  took  every  link 
apart  and  put  it  together  again  while  you  were 


170  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

preaching ;  I  am  discouraged."  I  said,  "  I  am 
sorry,  but  I  can't  help  it."  Six  weeks  afterwards 
we  came  to  the  same  lesson,  and  to  her  surprise 
Charlie  knew  it  well.  She  said,  "  Charlie,  I  am 
glad  you  studied  your  lesson."  He  answered,  "  I 
didn't  study  it."  Then  she  said,  "  How  did  you 
know  it  so  well  ?  "  "  Oh,"  he  said,  "  old  Schauffler 
preached  on  it  six  weeks  ago."  He  was  mercurial 
enough  to  listen  to  me,  attend  to  the  watch-chain 
and  leap  back  to  me  again.  We  must  adapt  our 
teaching,  therefore,  to  that  peculiar  phase  of  child 
nature.  Change  it,  we  cannot ;  adapt  ourselves  to 
it,  we  can. 

Another  characteristic  of  child  nature  is  that  it 
is  swift.  That  is  one  trouble,  that  children  are  so 
swift  and  we  are  so  slow.  One  time  I  saw  a  notice 
on  a  roundhouse  of  a  railroad  company  which  said, 
"]N"o  engineer  is  allowed  to  take  his  locomotive  out 
of  this  roundhouse  with  less  than  one  hundred  and 
twenty  pounds  of  steam  on."  I  thought,  "  That  is 
fine,  and  I  will  put  up  a  notice  in  our  Sunday-school 
that  no  teacher  will  be  allowed  to  go  to  her  class 
with  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  of 
steam  on."  The  trouble  is  that  the  boys  go  there 
with  their  boilers  bursting,  and  you  get  there  with 
your  boiler  lukewarm,  and  then  you  expect  to  pull 
that  train.  Nay,  verily.  The  boy  whose  boiler  is 
full  will  pull  the  train.  Imagine  this  situation  in 
the  class.  A  Wild  West  show  has  been  around  and 
some  of  the  boys  have  been  to  it.  The  Sunday- 
school   lesson  is  "Jehoshaphat  helped  by  God." 


The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  1 71 

They  don't  care  about  Jehoshaphat ;  they  don't 
know  who  he  was  ;  they  don't  care  whether  he  was 
helped  by  God  or  not,  but  they  are  full  of  the 
Wild  West  show  and  they  all  arrive  early.  The 
teacher  arrives  full  of  Jehoshaphat  and  she  arrives 
late,  and  one  of  the  boys  is  already  teaching  the 
class  a  lesson  on  Buffalo  Bill  and  he  is  doing  it  well. 
That  is  because  he  has  got  one  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds  of  steam  on,  and  the  boy  who  comes  early 
with  that  kind  of  a  boiler  will  carry  the  whole 
train  with  him.  That  makes  some  teachers  so  re- 
luctant to  go  to  their  classes.  It  is  to  them  a  kind 
of  a  bore,  and  they  say,  "  Oh,  I  have  got  to  go  to 
that  class  again."  Now  wherever  a  teacher  says, 
"Oh,  I  have  got  to  go  to  that  class,"  you  may  be 
sure  that  the  class  says,  "  Oh,  here  comes  that 
teacher."  It  is  a  poor  rule  that  does  not  work 
both  ways. 

This  swiftness  of  our  scholars  is  a  thing  peculiar 
to  America.  I  have  seen  Sunday-school  scholars 
in  four  continents,  and  nowhere  can  they  match 
that  swiftness  of  mental  processes  which  we  find 
here.  A  Boston  lady  told  me  one  day  of  a  Boston 
boy  in  the  public  school  who  was  asked  to  give  the 
parts  of  the  verb  "  go  "  ;  he  promptly  said,  "  Go, 
went,  got  there."  I  took  that  down  to  ISTew  York 
and  told  it  to  my  brother,  who  is  one  of  the  super- 
intendents of  public  schools  in  New  York,  and  he 
said,  "  Oh,  that's  nothing ;  a  New  York  grammar- 
school  boy  was  asked  to  compare  the  adjective 
*  sick,'  and  he  said,  '  Sick,  worse,  dead.'  " 


172  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Prof.  George  Adam  Smith  told  me  the  following 
story  of  a  ISlew  Haven  professor  of  psychology, 
whose  wont  it  was  to  pounce  on  some  child  and 
ask  it  a  ridiculous  question  to  see  how  long  it  took 
the  child  to  pull  itself  together  and  give  some  kind 
of  an  answer.  One  day  on  the  streets  of  New 
Haven,  he  pounced  on  a  newsboy  and  said,  "  Sonny, 
what  time  is  it  by  your  nose  ? "  The  newsboy 
promptly  said,  "  Mine  ain't  running ;  is  yours  ? " 
You  see  how  swift  these  children  are,  and  the 
teacher  must  accelerate  her  speed  in  order  to  keep 
up  with  the  amazing  rapidity  of  her  scholars.  But 
if  we  do,  then  we  lead  them,  for  they  love  swift 
people,  and  if  we  lead  them  in  that  way  they  will 
follow  willingly. 

Another  characteristic  of  childhood  is  that  it  is 
superbly  imaginative.  Oh,  how  these  children  love 
to  make  believe.  They  live  in  an  imaginary  world, 
and  we  live  in  the  prosaic  world.  If  we  only  use 
our  imagination  right,  we  can  picture  to  them 
Biblical  scenes  and  make  vivid  to  them  Biblical 
parables,  so  that  they  are  fairly  fascinated  with  the 
story.  Their  imaginations  are  fairly  hungering 
for  food  and  if  we  have  nothing  to  present  to  them, 
no  imaginative  work,  we  lose  them. 

The  imagination  of  some  of  these  children  is 
really  bewitching.  I  heard,  for  example,  of  a  child 
who  was  eating  pancakes  at  breakfast.  She  cut  a 
little  piece  and  a  big  piece.  Then  she  called  the 
little  piece  baby  and  the  big  piece  mama,  and  eat- 
ing the  little  piece  she  said,  "  Don't  cry,  baby ; 


The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  1 73 

mama  is  coming  directly."     Is  not  that  charming  ? 
A  child  that  can  imagine  such  a  fascinating  thing 
as  that  can    be  led  by  the  teacher  by   the  very 
power    of    its  imagination,   so   that   teacher  and 
scholar  shall  be  enormously  stimulated  and  grati- 
fied.    Of  course,  we  know  by  experience  that  these 
children   are  not,  all  of  them,  angels.     Some  of 
them  are  rather  trying.     I  heard  a  man  in  the 
''  Men  and  Eeligion  Movement  "  make  a  statement 
in  public  with  which  I  failed  to  agree.     He  said, 
pointblank,  "  There  are  no  bad  boys."     This  is  not 
true.     There  are  some  boys  who  naturally  are  de- 
praved and  degenerate.     Of  course,  we  have  our 
troubles    with    these  children,   but  so  do  public 
school  teachers.     The  papers  often  make  fun  of  us 
Sunday-school  teachers    because  of  the  ridiculous 
answers  we  get  to  some  of  our  questions,  and  with 
all    of   that  I  agree.     But  if  any  public  school 
teacher  will  show  me  any  stupid  or  absurd  answer 
of  a  Sunday-school  scholar,  I  will  match  it  at  once 
with  a  ridiculous   answer   in  the  public  schools. 
Lately,  after  having  studied  English  history  a  little, 
some   scholars   were  asked  to  write  an  essay  on 
Henry  the  Eighth,  and  one  of  the  children  wrote, 
"  Henry  the  Eighth  married  a  wife  and  didn't  like 
her,  and  put  her  away,  and  he  married  a  second 
and  a  third  and  a  fourth  and  a  fifth  and  a  sixth, 
and  out  of  that  sprang  the  Church  of  England." 
Another  boy,  writing  on  Lincoln,  said,  "  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  born  on  a  very  cold  February  day  in  a 
small  log  cabin  which  he  helped  his  father  build." 


174  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Now  these  are  not  imaginary  things  I  am  telling 
you ;  these  are  actual  facts.  My  brother,  who  used 
to  bring  me  sundry  tidbits  out  of  the  public  schools, 
told  me  that  in  a  grammar-school  after  a  lecture 
on  the  human  body,  the  class  was  asked  to  write  a 
composition  and  one  boy  wrote  as  follows :  "  The 
human  body  is  composed  of  three  parts,  the  head, 
thorax  and  bowels ;  the  head  is  that  with  which  we 
think ;  the  thorax  has  the  heart,  lungs  and  liver ; 
the  bowels  are  five,  a  e  i  o  u  and  sometimes  w 
and  y." 

Absurd  things  ?  Yes ;  but  that  is  the  way  the 
child  mind  works ;  it  misapprehends,  both  in  public 
school  and  Sunday-school.  So  we  ought  not  to  be 
any  more  discouraged  in  our  work  than  the  public 
school  teachers  are  in  theirs.  Indeed,  we  ought  to 
be  less  discouraged,  because  the  public  school 
teachers  have  their  scholars  five  days  a  week  and 
five  hours  in  the  day,  and  we  have  our  scholars  one 
day  in  the  week  and  thirty  minutes  for  the  lesson. 
Under  these  conditions  I  say  it  is  wonderful  to  see 
what  results  we  do  get. 

These  scholars  of  ours  are  affectionate.  Every 
child,  unless  it  is  blase,  is  affectionate.  Childhood 
is  like  a  creeper  that  wants  something  to  twine 
around,  and  if  the  teacher  is  in  the  right  attitude 
towards  the  child,  the  child  will  twine  around  the 
teacher  and  cling  closely  to  the  one  it  loves.  This 
affection  of  the  child  for  the  teacher  may  be  ad- 
mirably used  by  the  teacher  to  win  the  child  away 
from  the  base,  to  lead  the  child  up  to  that  which  is 


The  Teacher^s  Grand  Quartet  175 

noble,  to  win  the  child  away  from  the  visible  to  the 
invisible,  to  lead  the  child  from  love  for  the  teacher 
to  love  for  the  teacher's  Saviour. 

I  am  sorry  for  any  teacher  whose  scholars  do  not 
love  her.  It  simply  shows  that  you  are  not  lov- 
able, that  is  all.  Kesign,  if  you  cannot  love  your 
scholars ;  but  if  you  can  love  your  scholars,  hold  on, 
for,  after  all,  the  power  of  the  Sunday-school  teacher 
is  more  a  power  of  the  heart  than  of  the  head.  I  am 
not  one  of  those  who  depreciate  the  head.  I  would 
have  the  teachers  prepare  themselves  with  the  ut- 
most conscientiousness  so  they  will  know  what  to 
teach.  Nevertheless,  the  dominant  power  in  Sun- 
day-school work  is  affection  and  not  intellect. 
When,  however,  you  combine  affection  and  intellect, 
then  you  have  a  prodigious  force,  and  you  can  bring 
your  scholars  step  by  step  from  that  which  is  merely 
human  up  to  that  which  is  superbly  divine. 

These  scholars  of  ours  have  another  characteristic. 
They  are  heroic.  We  oftentimes  make  a  mistake 
through  thinking  that  one  must  grow  to  adult  years 
before  one  can  be  a  hero  or  a  heroine.  That  is  a 
great  blunder.  I  have  known  children  as  heroic  in 
their  stand  for  the  right  as  any  adults  whom  I  have 
ever  met.  When  a  child  sees  its  duty  and  is  rightly 
taught,  it  will  often  go  ahead  and  do  its  duty,  ir- 
respective of  its  environment,  even  more  steadily 
than  a  man  will.  After  we  grow^  to  be  adults,  all 
kind  of  ulterior  considerations  come  in.  We  say, 
"  This  is  the  line  of  duty,  but  how  will  it  affect  my 
interests  ?    What  will  people  say  of  me  if  I  launch 


176  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

out  on  this  career  ?  How  will  it  affect  my  friends  ?  " 
All  manner  of  selfish  considerations  come  in  to  in- 
fluence us,  not  always  victoriously,  but  often  power- 
fully. The  tendency  of  the  child,  if  it  sees  its  line 
of  duty,  is  to  follow  it  like  the  flight  of  an  arrow, 
regardless  of  consequences.  Many  a  Sunday-school 
teacher  will  bear  witness  to  this  superb  characteris- 
tic of  childhood,  that  sees,  and  dares  and  does. 

Oh,  we  so  often  underestimate  the  potentiality  of 
these  children.  We  are  thinking  of  them  in  a 
derogatory  kind  of  way  only  too  frequently.  An 
elder  in  a  Scotch  church,  being  absent  from  com- 
munion service,  and  on  Monday  meeting  another 
elder  who  had  been  to  communion  service  said  to 
him,  "  Did  any  one  unite  with  the  church  yesterday 
on  confession  ?  "  The  answer  was,  "  No,  nobody 
but  wee  Bobby  Moffatt."  Oh,  nobody  but  wee 
Bobby  Moffatt !  But  what  has  Africa  got  to  say 
about  "  wee  Bobby  Moffatt "  and  his  successor, 
Livingstone  ?  What  has  Africa  got  to  say  about 
his  breaking  open  that  continent  and  endeavouring 
to  bring  in  Christ's  light  ?  To  the  elder  he  was 
only  "  wee  Bobby  Moffatt "  ;  to  God  he  was  the 
pioneer  in  the  opening  of  that  dark  continent. 

You  see,  then,  what  superb  material  we  have 
right  under  our  hands,  at  the  formative  period,  just 
when  imagination,  when  swiftness  of  thought,  when 
that  profound  affection  of  the  child  prompts  it  to 
be  influenced  by  us  and  to  follow  our  lead,  with 
absolute  trust,  and  with  a  loyalty  unsurpassed. 

That,  then,  is  the  first  of  these  four  grand  things. 


The  Teacher^s  Grand  Quartet  177 

The  second  is  the  best  tool.  We  all  like  good 
tools.  A  good  workman  can  work  well  with  a  poor 
tool,  and  a  poor  workman  cannot  work  well  with 
anything,  but,  nevertheless,  a  good  workman  can 
work  better  if  he  can  get  a  good  tool.  The  tool 
that  we  have  with  which  to  shape  this  child  nature 
is  the  Word  of  God,  adapted  admirably  to  all  the 
child's  needs.  Not  that  all  the  Word  of  God  is 
equally  adapted  to  childhood.  No  one  would  claim 
that.  But  there  are  multitudes  of  passages  in  the 
Word  of  God  which  fit  a  child's  nature  as  a  key  fits 
a  lock.  Have  you  ever  realized  how  the  historical 
parts  of  the  Bible  are  written  from  the  biographical 
standpoint  ?  If  you  take  the  lives  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  Jacob  and  Joseph,  you  have  covered  thirty- 
nine  chapters  of  Genesis,  all  biographical,  and  if 
you  take  the  life  of  Moses,  you  have  covered  the 
rest  of  the  Pentateuch.  If  you  take  the  life  of 
David,  you  have  covered  a  large  part  of  Kings. 
If  you  take  the  lives  of  Christ,  Paul,  Peter,  you 
have  covered  practically  the  whole  of  the  New 
Testament.  Children  like  to  know  what  people 
did,  they  like  to  be  introduced  to  the  great  men 
and  the  great  women  of  the  centuries  that  lie  be- 
hind us.  What  grander  story  is  there,  for  example, 
than  the  story  of  David  and  Jonathan,  so  superbly 
told  ?  What  more  beautiful  story  than  the  friend- 
ship between  mother-in-law  and  daughter-in-law  as 
given  in  the  book  of  Kuth  ?  The  model  mother-in- 
law  of  all  millenniums  is  Naomi,  and  the  model 
daughter-in-law  of  the  same  millenniums  is  Kuth. 


178  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Not  in  Kichmond,  not  in  any  town  of  New  Eng- 
land, can  you  find  any  more  superb  examples  of 
what  mother-in-law  and  daughter-in-law  should  be 
to  each  other.  There  is  no  more  superb  poetry 
than  the  words  of  Kuth  : 

''Intreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  and  to  re- 
turn from  following  after  thee :  for  whither 
thou  goest,  I  will  go  ;  and  where  thou  lodg- 
est,  I  will  lodge ;  thy  people  shall  be  my 
people,  and  thy  God  my  God  : 

^' Where  thou  diest,  will  I  die,  and  there 
will  I  be  buried :  Jehovah  do  so  to  me,  and 
more  also,  if  ought  but  death  part  thee  and 
me." 

That  is  superb. 

Passing  along,  what  grander  story  is  there  than 
that  of  Joseph,  who  in  adversity  was  loyal  to  the 
truth  and  in  prosperity  never  forsook  the  God  of 
his  fathers  ?  The  days  of  bitter  adversity  and  the 
days  of  wonderful  prosperity  were  met  by  that  man 
in  each  case  victoriously. 

There  is  no  book  in  all  the  world  which  a  teacher 
can  teach  year  after  year  and  not  be  weary  of,  ex- 
cepting only  this  Book.  I  have  been  a  teacher  of 
a  Bible  class  of  teachers  in  New  York  for  thirty- 
four  years.  Am  I  weary  of  it  ?  Never.  Have  we 
exhausted  it  ?  We  have  not  begun  to  get  at  it 
even  yet.  And  as  the  years  pass  by,  the  Book 
opens  up  more  and  more,  and  you  see  how  it  is 
fitted  to  the  human  heart,  how  it  fills  the  deepest 
human  wants,  how  it  arouses  the  human  conscience, 


The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  179 

how  it  stimulates  human  effort,  how  it  sets  before 
you  truth  abstractly  and  concretely  in  the  examples 
of  the  noble  men  and  women  of  days  gone  by.  So 
here,  for  the  child  that  we  wish  to  influence  and 
shape,  we  have  a  tool  admirably  adapted  for  ex- 
actly the  work  we  want  to  carry  out. 

The  third  of  those  grand  things  is  our  Helper. 
We  may  well  say,  as  we  face  a  class  of  boys  or 
girls,  "Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?"  We 
sit  before  that  class,  and  each  one  of  them  is  a 
sovereign,  sitting  in  his  castle,  with  his  own  free 
will.  Challenge  all  of  the  professors  of  all  the 
theological  seminaries  to  come  and  bend  the  will 
of  a  perverse  boy.  Without  divine  aid  they  shall 
fail  utterly,  because  that  boy  sits  inside  a  sovereign, 
hearing  all  of  their  pleas,  all  of  their  arguments, 
and  replying,  "I  won't."  There  is  no  power  on 
earth  that  is  merely  human  that  can  bend  that 
boy's  will.  Sovereign  he  remains,  because  of  this 
endowment  of  free  agency.  We  need,  therefore,  in 
this  grand  but  most  difficult  task  of  shaping  char- 
acter, to  have  a  helper  who  is  superhuman,  and 
that  is  exactly  what  we  have.  The  Divine  Spirit 
is  willing  to  be  a  co-worker  with  every  single 
Sunday-school  teacher  in  the  world.  It  is  His  work 
to  lift  up  before  the  scholar,  through  us,  the  things 
of  Christ ;  it  is  His  work  to  tame  the  human  will 
and  make  it  willing  in  the  day  of  His  power.  I 
believe  myself  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  always  ach- 
ing to  act  with  the  teacher  in  her  class. 

Many  teachers  go  to  their  classes  almost  without 


l8o  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

the  consciousness  that  there  is  a  Holy  Spirit,  or 
that  He  is  willing  to  guide  them  in  their  study,  and 
in  their  speech.  They  run  in  their  own  strength. 
Whoever  runs  in  his  own  strength  runs  without 
tidings,  and  without  power.  When  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  entreated,  then  that  teacher  goes  into  the  class, 
and  by  virtue  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  aid  an  influence 
is  exerted  so  that  hearts  are  opened  and  wills  sub- 
dued. There  are  many  ministers,  I  fear,  who  go 
into  the  pulpit  without  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  they 
come  out  without  the  Holy  Spirit,  too.  It  is  not 
your  great  sermon,  it  is  not  your  great  oratory  that 
is  to  accomplish  anything.  No ;  our  sufficiency  is 
through  Him.  How  could  Mr.  Moody,  illiterate 
as  he  was,  swing  thousands  and  thousands  and 
bring  them  by  God's  grace  into  the  kingdom? 
Only  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Living  God. 
How  does  Billy  Sunday,  with  whose  methods  some 
of  us  disagree,  nevertheless,  by  God's  grace,  win  so 
many  from  low  lives  to  high  lives,  from  lawlessness 
to  lawfulness  ?  The  secret  of  it  all  is  dependence  on 
the  Spirit  of  the  Living  God,  without  whom  noth- 
ing can  be  accomplished,  and  with  whom  nothing 
need  fail. 

I  would,  therefore,  earnestly  urge  that  all  who 
go  into  the  pulpit,  all  who  go  into  the  class-room, 
realize  that  they  are  absolutely  powerless  unless 
Divine  Power  flows  through  them,  and  that  then 
there  is  no  opposition  that  can  successfully  resist 
this  divine  influence. 

See,  then,  where  we  stand— the  best  material, 


The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  i8i 

childhood ;  the  best  tool,  the  Word  of  the  Living 
God ;  the  best  helper,  the  Divine  Spirit.  This 
explains  how  very  ignorant  teachers,  leaning  on 
the  Holy  Spirit's  aid,  succeed  where  highly  intel- 
lectual teachers,  leaning  on  their  own  strength, 
ofttimes  fail.  In  my  school  one  of  my  two  most 
successful  teachers  in  winning  souls  for  Christ  was 
a  man  who  had  lived  his  lifetime  before  the  mast, 
quite  ignorant,  but  filled  with  Power  Divine.  Every 
one  of  his  scholars  came  to  the  Saviour  and  every 
one  joined  the  church.  Then  he  came  to  me  and 
he  said,  "I  am  an  ignorant  man;  these  children 
have  found  the  Saviour;  take  them  away  from 
me ;  give  them  to  some  one  better  instructed  than 
I,  and  give  me  out  of  the  primary  class  another  set ; 
maybe  I  can  lead  them  to  Christ."  He  was  a  man 
saturated  with  prayer  and  convinced  of  his  depend- 
ence on  the  Divine  Spirit.  I  gave  him  another 
class,  and  every  one  of  those  found  the  Saviour 
and  every  one  joined  the  church. 

This  brings  us  to  the  fourth  of  these  best  things, 
and  that  is  the  best  aim  in  the  world.  There  are 
various  aims  that  we  can  have  in  the  education  of 
those  under  our  care.  The  college  coach  aims  at 
superb  development  for  the  baseball  or  the  foot- 
ball team.  What  he  wants  is,  primarily,  physical 
capability  and  a  superb  body  under  the  government 
of  a  well-trained  mind.  At  the  same  time,  in  these 
days  of  excessive  athletics,  I  oftentimes  think  of 
that  passage  of  Scripture  which  says  that  the  Lord 
delighteth  not  in  the  legs  of  a  man.     The  football 


l82  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

crowd  deals  in  the  legs  of  a  man,  but  I  never  forget 
that  the  rear  battery  of  a  donkey  can  kick  harder 
than  any  football  player  I  ever  heard  of.  (Never- 
theless, I  do  not  depreciate  football,  though  I  some- 
times think  that  it  is  one  of  those  things  which  has 
been  driven  to  excess.) 

There  are  others  who  aim  at  the  higher  develop- 
ment of  youth  through  the  intellect.  The  public 
school  teacher,  or  college  professor  aims  at  the 
development  of  the  mind,  which  is  surely  higher 
than  anything  physical,  because  it  is  through  the 
intellect  that  we  stand  high  above  the  most  superb 
animal  in  the  world.  The  Sunday-school  has  no 
physical  aim  except  secondarily  ;  nor  has  it  an  in- 
tellectual aim  except  secondarily.  We  are  not 
satisfied  if  we  instruct  our  scholars  only  in  Old  and 
New  Testament  geography ;  we  cannot  consider 
our  work  well  done  if  we  impart  only  a  knowledge 
of  Old  Testament  times  and  environment,  or  of 
New  Testament  times  under  the  Koman  Empire. 
All  of  this  is  a  legitimate  subject  to  work  on,  but 
is  only  subsidiary ;  our  work  is  higher  than  this, 
and  reaches  deeper  than  this.  That  Sunday-school 
teacher  who  is  satisfied  because  he  has  made  his 
scholars  understand  the  lesson  as  a  lesson,  historic- 
ally or  geographically,  comes  far  short  of  his  duty 
and  privilege. 

What,  then,  is  the  supreme  aim  of  all  right- 
minded  Sunday-school  teachers  ?  It  is  twofold. 
First,  the  conversion  of  the  scholar  to  Christ.  Call 
it  by  any  name  you  like,  I  care  not ;  the  reality  is 


The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  183 

the  thing ;  "  Ye  must  be  born  again."  I  am  not 
of  those  who  claim  that  a  child  must  have  a  dra- 
matic experience  in  conversion,  such  as  Jerry  Mc- 
Auley  had,  or  Dave  Kanney,  or  S.  S.  Hadley.  A 
child  has  not  run  any  such  course  as  those  men  and 
it  is  foolish  to  talk  of  a  child  having  such  an  ex- 
perience. Nevertheless,  the  fact  is  that  in  its  own 
way  the  child  has  got  to  trust  the  Saviour,  accept 
Him  as  Master  and  follow  Him  as  leader. 

It  would  be  most  interesting  if,  right  here  and 
now,  we  could  find  what  our  experiences  were  in 
coming  to  Christ.  The  experience  of  no  two  of  us 
would  be  exactly  alike.  I  came  to  Christ  at  about 
fourteen  years  of  age,  with  no  extra  preaching,  no 
revival  services,  nothing  at  all  but  God  and  I.  I 
came  to  Christ  quietly  in  my  own  room,  on  my 
knees.  I  know  the  place,  I  know  the  time,  I  know 
the  experience  full  well  when  my  boy  heart  sur- 
rendered. 

Now  our  chance  of  reaching  that  aim  (always  by 
divine  grace,  remember)  is  enormously  better  in 
childhood  than  in  adult  years.  All  statistics  show 
that  if  a  boy,  or  a  girl,  passes  adolescence,  uncon- 
verted, the  chances  are  very  small  that  they  ever 
will  surrender  themselves  to  Christ  and  follow 
Him.  As  the  years  pass  the  chances  grow  less  and 
less.  Enormously  the  majority  of  those  who  are 
church  members  will  testify  that  they  found  Christ 
before  they  were  fifteen  years  old.  I  have  tested 
this  again  and  again,  but,  for  your  sakes,  I  am  go- 
ing to  test  it  now,  and  I  am  going  to  ask  all  of  you 


184  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

who  recognize  that  you  found  Christ  at  or  before 
fifteen  years  of  age  please  to  stand  now.  (Nearly 
all  rise.)  You  see  where  we  stand.  What  an 
enormous  majority  of  those  here  were  child-Chris- 
tians. And  there  is  our  joy,  and  our  hope,  that  we 
have  got  these  children  just  at  this  plastic  period, 
when  divine  influences  are  more  easily  followed 
and  divine  impressions  are  more  easily  made. 

That,  then,  is  our  first  aim,  the  bringing  of  the 
scholar  to  Christ,  his  conversion,  regeneration — I 
care  not  what  your  nomenclature  is,  so  long  as  the 
actuality  is  there. 

Now  many  teachers  make  this  mistake,  that  when 
the  scholar  has  united  with  the  church  they  feel 
like  washing  their  hands  and  saying,  "  My  duty  is 
done."  Oh,  no ;  your  duty  has  only  begun  along 
another  line ;  it  has  been  bringing  the  child  to  the 
Saviour,  henceforth  it  is  to  train  the  child  up  in  the 
Saviour's  love  and  service.  So,  then,  there  comes 
the  second  aim  of  the  teacher,  which  is  growth  in 
grace,  or  Christian  culture.  The  aim  of  our  teach- 
ing changes  at  once  when  the  scholar  makes  the 
great  surrender.  There  had  been  no  spiritual  life  ; 
it  was  imparted ;  now  it  must  be  fostered,  stimu- 
lated, brought  to  proper  and  symmetrical  pro- 
portions ;  and  there  the  teacher's  work,  though 
changing,  remains,  nevertheless,  along  the  same 
line  of  Christian  fullness  of  character. 

See,  friends,  what  a  wonderful  thing  this  is.  Our 
aim  with  these  scholars  is  to  make  them  reproduc- 
tions of  Christ  in  character.     "  Be  ye  therefore  per- 


\^  The  Teacher's  Grand  Quartet  185 

feet,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in  Heaven  is 
perfect."  That  is  oar  aim.  So  when  they  are 
born  into  the  kingdom,  it  is  ours  by  divine  grace 
to  be  God's  tools  to  develop  in  them  this  Christian 
life,  so  that  the  old  things  shall  pass  away,  so  that 
the  old  man  shall  be  put  off  like  an  old,  moth-eaten 
garment,  so  that  the  new  man  shall  be  put  on.  A 
grander  aim  than  that  no  man  on  earth,  no  angel 
in  Heaven,  could  desire,  because  grander  than  per- 
fectness  as  our  Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect,  there 
is  nothing  in  the  wide  world. 

Teacher,  is  not  your  privilege  beyond  speech? 
Four  divine  things  making  this  quartet,  which,  if 
rightly  handled,  shall  make  divine  music.  There 
is  God's  child,  perverted  and  wayward  more  or 
less,  I  know,  but  none  the  less  God's  child ;  there 
is  God's  Book  ;  there  is  God's  Divine  Spirit  to  help 
me  use  that  Book  as  a  tool  for  that  divine  child  ;' 
there  is  the  divine  aim  and  object,  the  imparting 
and  the  development  of  the  divine  character.  Four 
divine  things,  and  all  at  my  disposal,  all  by  divine 
help  brought  under  my  control  more  or  less.  Could 
any  calling  be  grander,  more  precious,  or  more 
worthy  of  being  sought  after  by  any  one  on  earth 
than  the  calling  of  Sunday-school  teacher?  As 
teachers,  we  strike  into  the  very  heart  of  our  chil- 
dren's lives,  reach  the  rising  generation  so  that  the 
families  that  are  to  be,  are  going  to  be  more  di- 
vinely instructed  than  the  families  that  now  are. 
We  are  co-working  with  Christ  to  win  man  back  to 
loyalty  to  God,  to  win  man  away  from  that  which 


i86  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

is  base  and  low  to  that  which  is  high,  to  win  men 
away  from  eternal  death  to  eternal  life  through 
Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.  These  things  form  the 
grand  quartet  for  the  teacher.  For  the  right  use 
of  all  of  these,  let  us  individually  look  to  Him  who 
is  willing  to  guide  all  His  people  with  the  Divine 
Spirit  of  Truth,  without  whom,  I  must  repeat,  all 
is  vain,  but  with  whom  there  shall  be  signal  success 
in  winning  our  scholars  for  Christ  and  building 
them  up  into  Christlike  living  and  service. 


X 

THE  TEACHER'S  ELEVEN  HELPERS 

EYERY  Sunday-school  superintendent  who  is 
capable  will  sooner  or  later  have  a  good 
school.  However  disorganized  the  school 
may  be  when  he  takes  it,  he  will  work  cosmos  out 
of  chaos  in  due  time.  Every  capable  teacher, 
whatever  may  be  the  class  passed  over  to  him  or 
her,  will  sooner  or  later  have  a  well-managed  class 
because  the  teacher  can  by  patience,  perseverance 
and  prayer  largely  overcome  the  difficulties  that 
any  class  presents.  If  the  teacher  is  fortunate 
enough  to  have  a  good  superintendent,  then  teacher 
and  superintendent  work  in  close  cooperation,  and 
school-work  and  class-work  rapidly  attain  a  fine 
development. 

I  am  talking  this  morning,  however,  about  that 
particular  teacher  who,  even  independently  of  the 
superintendent,  can  make  admirable  use  of  the 
eleven  helpers  that  God  has  given. 

Every  teacher  has  two  eyes.  I  have  seen  teachers 
who  you  would  think  were  blind,  because  they  did 
not  seem  to  see.  Every  superintendent  who  notices 
finds  teachers  who  are  oblivious  to  disorder  in  the 
class.  The  boys  may  be  cutting  up  didos  but  the 
teacher  keeps  on  the  even  tenor  of  her  way  and 
notices   nothing.     There  are  teachers  in  primary 

187 


i88  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

departments  who  never  notice  whether  the  room  is 
well  arranged,  whether  the  scholars  are  well  seated, 
whether  they  are  comfortable  or  uncomfortable. 
It  is  amazing  to  see  how  they  do  not  see.  Unless 
your  scholars  are  comfortable  it  is  impossible  for 
you  to  teach  them.  1  don't  care  how  clever  the 
teacher  is,  if  you  are  sitting  on  the  sharp  end  of  a 
tack  he  may  work  in  vain  until  that  tack  is  ex- 
tracted. So  while  the  scholar  is  uncomfortable  or 
the  air  in  the  room  is  exhausted,  the  teacher's  labour 
is  futile. 

Two  eyes — given  to  see.  I  once  had  in  my 
school  two  blind  teachers,  but  what  they  lacked  in 
physical  vision  they  made  up  by  the  use  of  ear- 
gate.  One  of  them  was  very  shrewd.  He  taught 
a  girls'  class.  I  had  said  in  the  teachers'  meeting 
one  day  that  I  needed  a  teacher  very  much  for  a 
trying  boys'  class.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting  he 
came  up  and  said :  "  I  will  take  it."  I  replied : 
"  Why,  you  are  blind."  "  Never  mind,"  he  an- 
swered, "  I  will  take  it."  I  gave  him  the  class  and 
moved  it  up  to  the  front  in  the  school,  so  as  to  be 
directly  under  my  supervision.  This  is  what  hap- 
pened the  ver}^  first  Sunday.  The  seats  were  all 
cushioned  and  the  class  was  crowded.  As  we  arose 
to  sing  one  boy  threw  his  h3aTin-book  on  the  cush- 
ioned seat.  The  blind  teacher  heard  it.  He  stooped 
down,  picked  up  the  book  and  gave  it  to  the  scholar 
with  a  smile.  Just  at  that  moment  the  boy's  eye 
caught  mine  and  he  smiled  in  a  kind  of  shamefaced 
way.     The  blind  teacher  had  been  too  much  for 


The  Teacher's  Eleven  Helpers         189 

the  boy  with  two  eyes.  He  took  his  book,  opened 
it  and  sang  like  an  angel.  What  the  teacher  could 
not  see  the  teacher  could  hear  and  thus  he  remedied 
the  diflBculty  with  that  one  boy  and  thereby  quelled 
a  sort  of  quiet  insubordination  in  the  class. 

Every  teacher  has  two  ears.  There  are  many 
teachers  who  seem  to  act  as  if  they  were  stone-deaf, 
for  they  never  give  their  scholars  a  chance  to  say 
anything,  they  never  hear  what  is  announced  from 
the  platform  and  if  a  platform  review  of  the  lesson 
goes  on,  they  pay  little  attention.  Ears  are  given 
to  hear.  We  must  be  good  listeners  as  well  as 
good  talkers.  A  mere  lecturer  is  out  of  place  in  a 
class  of  boys  or  girls.  In  the  adult  class  it  may  be 
that  pure  lecturing  may  pass,  but  with  the  younger 
ones — never.  There  has  got  to  be  such  teaching  as 
will  lead  the  scholars  to  ask  questions  and  the  teacher 
must  answer  them.  There  must  be  such  teaching 
as  will  lead  the  teacher  to  ask  questions  and  listen 
to  the  replies.  That  particular  line  of  work  in  the 
class  I  shall  discuss  later  on  more  fully. 

Ears  are  given  to  hear  with,  and  if  we  listen  to 
our  scholars'  troubles  sympathetically,  if  we  hear 
their  temptations  pityingly,  it  goes  to  show  that 
we  enter  into  their  lives.  Just  as  we  listen,  just 
in  that  proportion  is  the  scholar  won.  We  ought, 
therefore,  to  use  our  ears.  I  noticed  when  I  was  a 
superintendent  that  some  teachers  paid  no  attention 
when  I  was  giving  an  announcement  from  the  plat- 
form. I  suppose  that  is  always  so  with  all  congre- 
gations.    There  are  always  some  in  all  congrega- 


igo  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

tions  who  do  not  hear  aright.  Even  here  in  this 
rather  extraordinarily  intellectual  congregation  a 
man  came  up  to  me  and  said :  "  Did  I  understand 
you  to  say  that  that  tablet  that  you  showed  us  was 
an  imitation  ?  "  Now,  I  had  said  distinctly  that  it 
was  genuine.  Where  were  that  man's  ears  ?  If 
there  is  a  notice,  harken.  If  there  is  a  platform  re- 
view, harken.  Whatever  the  superintendent  has  to 
say,  instantly  harken,  because  it  is  supposed  that 
what  he  says  is  worth  hearing. 

Every  teacher  has  two  feet  Feet  are  made  to  go 
with.  The  first  thing  a  teacher  ought  to  do  is  to 
go  to  the  teachers'  meeting,  if  there  be  one ;  to  Sun- 
day-school, always ;  and  in  any  case,  promptly. 
These  late-comers  make  one  sometimes  a  little  vexed. 
The  only  grace  they  develop  is  the  grace  of  patience, 
and  sometimes  they  almost  exhaust  that. 

But  the  teacher's  feet  are  given  to  travel  with. 
Visitation  is  one  of  the  tremendous  elements  of 
power  in  the  teacher's  work.  Every  teacher  ought 
to  visit  the  scholar  in  the  home,  not  once  or  twice, 
but  fairly  steadily.  You  can  learn  in  the  home 
surroundings  your  scholar's  daily  environment. 
That  will  help  you  when  you  meet  the  scholar  face 
to  face.  You  see  the  influence  there.  You  breathe 
the  mysterious  atmosphere  of  the  home.  This  helps 
you  to  be  patient,  to  better  adapt  the  truth  to  the 
need  of  each  particular  scholar. 

One  day,  the  morning  after  Christmas,  I  visited 
the  home  of  two  of  my  scholars.  The  father  was  a 
tailor.     As  soon  as  I  entered  he  turned  his  back  on 


The  Teacher's  Eleven  Helpers         191 

me  and  never  turned  around  again.  I  knew  at  once 
there  was  trouble.  I  did  my  best  but  failed  to  find 
out  what  the  trouble  was.  When  I  said  good-bye 
the  mother  followed  me  out  into  the  hall  and  said  : 
"  Last  night  when  the  children  got  home  from  the 
Christmas  tree  with  their  presents,  he  was  surly 
with  drink,  and  he  snatched  their  presents  from 
them  and  shoved  them  into  the  stove,  so  the  chil- 
dren are  broken-hearted." 

See — that  opened  the  door  to  me  to  know  the 
environment  of  these  poor  children,  to  sympathize 
with  them,  to  greet  them  with  a  little  more  of 
tenderness  and  kindliness  when  next  they  came  to 
Sunday-school. 

I  had  a  young  woman  in  a  Bible  class  who  was 
sometimes  troubled  very  much  with  nervousness. 
I  called  at  the  house  and  the  father  was  there,  who 
also  happened  to  be  a  tailor.  When  he  was  sober 
he  was  sensible  ;  when  he  was  in  his  cups  he  was  in- 
sufferable. That  day  he  was  in  his  cups  and  noth- 
ing suited  him.  He  was  as  cross  as  two  sticks. 
He  made  me  as  nervous  as  a  witch.  Then  I  knew 
why  that  young  woman  was  nervous — driven  to 
pieces  by  the  incessant  faultfinding  spirit  of  her 
own  father. 

Visiting  a  home  once  where  a  primary  scholar  in 
my  school  Kved,  I  was  talking  with  the  mother 
about  the  bringing  up  of  her  little  child.  One  of 
the  questions  I  asked  her  was,  "  Have  you  taught 
the  child  to  pray  ?  " 

"  Oh  !  certainly,"  she  said.     "  Mary,  kneel  down 


192  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

and  say  your  prayers."  On  that  the  little  five-year- 
old  child  knelt  down  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  and 
folding  her  hands,  said : 

"  O  Thou  with  the  strength  of  an  earthly  father, 
and  with  more  than  the  tenderness  of  an  earthly 
mother,  look  down  upon  us  Thy  sinful  creatures,  we 
beseech  Thee,  and  vouchsafe  unto  us  Thy  benedic- 
tion and  grace.     Amen." 

What  a  revelation  that  was  to  me,  as  Sunday- 
school  superintendent,  of  the  need  of  that  child  for 
better  instruction  along  the  line  of  prayer.  What 
could  a  five-year-older  understand  of  the  words 
"  vouchsafe  "  or  "  benediction  "  ? 

Not  only  should  our  feet  take  us  to  the  homes  of 
the  scholars,  but  if  they  be  in  business,  to  their 
place  of  business.  If  your  scholars  are  in  the  factory 
or  in  the  shop,  you  will  find  it  hard  to  find  them  in 
the  daytime  at  home,  but  in  the  factory  or  shop 
you  can  catch  them.  Their  employers  are  glad  to 
have  the  teachers  visit  their  employees.  I  have 
never  found  it  otherwise.  In  that  way  you  find 
their  environment  in  business  hours.  It  does  not 
take  long,  and  if  you  are  wise,  you  will  not  make 
long  visits  to  the  girl  in  the  department  or  candy 
store.     But  even  a  short  visit  touches  the  heart. 

My  wife  had  a  large  class  of  young  women  who 
worked.  One  of  them,  for  example,  worked  for 
Huyler's,  on  Broadway,  where  ladies  bought 
dyspepsia  at  ten  cents  a  glass.  She  was  cashier, 
and  sometimes  there  would  be  a  line  of  three  or 
more  waiting  their  chance  to  pay.     Of  course,  there 


The  Teacher's  Eleven  Helpers         193 

was  no  opportunity  for  much  talking,  but  my  wife 
would  simply  go  in  and  take  a  rose  or  pink,  and 
leaning  over  the  shoulders  of  the  ladies  say : 
"  Mary,  how  are  you  ?  "  and  give  her  the  flower. 
Wouldn't  Mary  be  more  sure  to  be  at  Sunday- 
school  on  the  next  Sunday  than  if  her  teacher  had 
not  done  this  ?  My  wife  knew  all  of  her  scholars 
in  their  homes  and  working  places. 

I  was  at  the  funeral  one  day,  in  ISTew  York,  of  a 
men's  Bible  class  teacher.  Around  that  coffin  were 
ninety  men.  His  class  numbered  one  hundred,  and 
they  said  the  way  he  got  his  tremendous  grip  on 
that  class  was  that  he  knew  every  one  of  them  in 
their  homes  and  in  their  places  of  business.  That 
is  the  blessed  advantage  of  having  two  good  feet 
wherewith  to  visit  in  home  and  in  business  place. 

Every  teacher  has  two  hands.  See  ;  you  are  not 
so  poverty-stricken  as  you  thought.  And  these 
hands  are  most  valuable  helpers.  With  your 
hands,  for  example,  you  can  do  blackboard  work  if 
you  have  a  class-room  by  yourself.  You  can  do  pad- 
work  if  you  have  to  meet  where  other  classes  sur- 
round you.  You  can  use  your  hands  for  corre- 
spondence. Many  of  these  scholars  of  ours  get  few 
letters,  especially  those  in  the  tenement  sections  of 
the  town,  and  a  letter  coming  to  the  tenement- 
house  boy  or  girl  is  quite  an  event.  But  never 
write  to  them  on  a  postal  card  in  the  tenement- 
house  district,  for  if  they  live  on  the  top  floor,  your 
card  is  read  all  the  way  up  and  when  it  reaches  the 
top  it  is  public  property.     Send  a  stamped  letter, 


194  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

sealed.  Then  what  the  scholar  gets  is  private 
property. 

There  are  often  things  we  would  like  to  say  that 
we  cannot  say  in  the  class,  but  a  letter  gives  us  the 
opportunity.  A  letter  is  always  read  by  a  Sunday- 
school  scholar  and  frequently  more  than  once.  A 
letter  makes  the  scholar  realize  that  the  teacher 
thinks  of  her  or  him  away  from  the  class,  that  the 
scholar  is  on  the  teacher's  heart.  I  have  known 
teachers  who  wrote  letters  to  their  scholars  regu- 
larly. In  their  vacation  when  scholar  and  teacher 
are  away,  they  secured  the  address  of  the  scholar, 
and  always  regularly  there  came  the  letter  from 
the  teacher  with  a  remark  or  two  about  the  lesson 
for  the  following  Sunday.  Do  you  wonder  that 
they  clung  to  her  as  with  hooks  of  steel  ? 

Remember  birthday  letters.  It  is  a  charming 
thing  to  send  a  scholar  :  "  Many  happy  returns  of 
your  birthdaj^"  Enclose  a  picture  card.  If  in  the 
fall,  put  in  some  autumn  leaves.  If  abroad,  put  in 
some  touching  memento.  It  is  not  the  price  of  the 
gift  that  counts.  It  is  the  heart  in  it.  The  schol- 
ars will  rally  around  the  teacher  who  remembers 
them  like  this  most  loyally. 

See — these  other  things  your  hands  can  do.  If 
you  go  to  visit  a  sick  scholar  (which  is  an  especially 
good  time  to  visit),  your  hands  can  take  some  little 
delicacy,  or  carry  a  small  bouquet  of  flowers.  Your 
hands  can  smooth  the  pillow.  Your  hands  can 
hold  the  hand  of  the  sick  boy  or  girl  lying  on  the 
bed,  fever-stricken.    Oh,  these  hands  { what  miracles 


The  Teacher^s  Eleven  Helpers         195 

they  are,  and  how  they  can  woo  and  win  the  schol- 
ar's heart. 

A  friend  of  mine  out  West,  who  was  a  sympa- 
thetic, kind  father,  died.  When  the  funeral  was 
about  to  take  place,  before  the  coffin  was  closed 
and  the  friends  had  come,  the  oldest  boy,  about 
nine  years  old,  said:  "Mother,  let  me  see  father 
again."  The  mother  asked  him :  "  Why  do  you 
want  to  see  your  father  again  ?  "  and  the  boy  re- 
plied :  "  I  want  to  look  at  his  kind  handsy 

These  hands  are  good  to  shake  hands  with  when 
the  scholars  come  to  the  class.  When  you  shake 
hands  with  your  scholars  may  I  suggest  if  you  have 
kid  gloves  on  that  you  take  them  off,  because  kid 
gloves  are  non-conductors  ;  skin  to  skin — that  is  the 
proper  way  to  shake  hands. 

I  was  to  address  a  certain  Sunday-school  in  New 
York  one  day.  Going  in,  I  sat  down  near  the  door. 
The  superintendent  came  in  and  looked  at  me  as 
though  he  were  a  marble  statue  and  I  another,  and 
passed  on.  I  said  to  myself :  "If  ever  I  want  to 
join  a  Sunday-school,  this  is  the  Sunday-school  I 
would  not  join." 

Again,  I  went  to  the  Bushwick  Avenue  Sunday, 
school  in  Brooklyn,  where  Frank  L.  Brown  was 
superintendent.  Before  I  got  past  the  vestibule,  a 
young  man  stepped  up  and  said :  "  I  believe  you 
are  a  stranger,  sir.  I  am  glad  to  see  you.  I  will 
give  you  a  seat  after  you  register,  and  the  moment 
the  superintendent  comes  I  will  introduce  you  to 
him."     The   moment  the  superintendent  came  in 


196  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

I  was  put  in  charge  of  the  proper  person  and  was 
shown  around  the  school.  The  next  Saturday,  un- 
der a  two-cent  stamp,  I  got  the  following :  "  Dear 
Mr.  Schauffler — We  were  glad  to  welcome  you  to 
our  school  last  Sunday.  If  you  do  not  belong  to 
any  school  and  would  like  to  unite  with  us,  we  as- 
sure you  of  a  hearty  welcome,  and  can  either  put 
you  in  the  proper  class  or  give  you  a  class,  if  you 
so  desire.     Yours  truly,  Frank  L.  Brown." 

Wouldn't  that  draw  me  to  that  school?  The 
secretary  used  his  hands  ;  the  superintendent  used 
his  hands ;  the  welcomer  used  his  hands,  and  that 
is  what  won  my  heart.  If  I  was  going  to  join  any 
school  that  is  the  school  that  I  would  quickly  go  to. 

See  what  wonderful  helpers  you  have — two  eyes, 
two  ears,  two  feet,  two  hands. 

You  have  got  one  mouthy  which  is  suggestive. 
Most  people  act  as  though  they  had  only  one  eye, 
one  ear,  one  foot,  one  hand,  and  two  mouths.  Nev- 
ertheless, this  mouth  is  very  helpful  and  he  who 
can  make  good  use  of  his  tongue  is  just  by  so  much 
a  first-class  teacher.  In  this  respect  we  may  ever 
offer  the  prayer :  ^'  Open  Thou  my  lips  and  my 
mouth  shall  show  forth  Thy  praise." 

Now  the  use  of  this  tongue  of  ours  is  most  help- 
ful. I  believe  that  on  the  whole  it  is  the  strongest 
helper  that  the  Sunday-school  teacher  has,  and 
therefore  to  its  right  use  very  great  attention  must 
be  paid.  With  our  tongues  we  welcome.  With  our 
tongues  we  ask  questions.  With  our  tongues  we 
impart  truth.     We  ought,  therefore,  to  know  the 


The  Teacher's  Eleven  Helpers         197 

fundamental  principles  of  teaching  through  speech 
in  the  appeal  to  ear-gate — mouth-gate  of  mine  ap- 
pealing to  ear-gate  of  the  scholar.  This  leads  us  to 
a  very  important  matter,  namely :  the  art  of  ques- 
tioning. We  are  appealing  to  our  scholars'  ears. 
We  want,  however,  also  to  give  the  scholar  a 
chance  to  use  his  tongue  so  as  to  arouse  in  the 
scholar  mental  activity  and  to  secure  from  the 
scholar  intelligent  cooperation  in  our  teaching.  The 
whole  matter  of  the  art  of  questioning  is  one  that 
deserves  a  whole  hour  at  least  for  itself.  I  can 
only  give  you  hints.  You  can  carry  them  further 
by  more  detailed  study. 

A  question  is  a  wonderful  thing.  Even  in  a 
class  where  they  are  paying  reasonable  attention, 
the  moment  you  say :  "  John,  what  do  you  think 
about  this  ? "  John's  mind  becomes  active  above 
the  other  minds  because  he  is  called  by  name.  A 
question  will  arouse  the  mind  of  the  inert  listener 
as  nothing  else  will  do. 

I  want  to  call  your  attention  here  to  several  of 
the  aims  you  should  have  in  view  in  preparing  your 
questions.  In  the  first  place,  a  question  may  be 
used  to  test  knowledge.  Oh,  the  ignorance  on  our 
part  of  the  ignorance  of  our  scholars,  and  there- 
fore the  misapplication  of  truth  because  we  do  not 
know  the  scholar's  standpoint.  We  ought,  there- 
fore, to  test  knowledge  by  questions. 

A  teacher  one  day  heard  one  of  her  scholars  in 
reading  the  lesson  responsively  say:  "Woe  unto 
you,  scribes  and  Parisees."    At  once  she  suspected 


198  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

something,  and  when  the  class  went  to  work  she 
said  to  tiie  girl:  "Who  were  these  Parisees?" 
The  child  replied :  "  The  Parisees  were  people  that 
dwelt  in  Paris." 

See  what  a  deficiency  of  knowledge  that  showed 
on  the  part  of  the  scholar.  Having  opened  that 
Sahara  of  ignorance,  the  teacher  turned  that  girl's 
ignorance  into  an  oasis  of  knowledge. 

One  of  my  teachers,  herself  a  Christian  girl,  who 
had  taken  every  prize  offered  in  the  school,  came 
to  me  one  day  and  said :  "  Dr.  Schauffler,  I  never 
knew  before  that  Jesus  Christ  was  crucified  four 
times."  What  a  light  that  threw  upon  her  mental 
equipment.  Instantly  I  guessed  that  for  the  first 
time  she  had  read  the  four  gospels  through  seri- 
atim and  had  found  Him  crucified  in  Matthew,  in 
Mark,  in  Luke,  in  John — four  times  ! 

You  say  that  happened  in  the  tenement-house 
district.  Yery  well,  then,  we  will  take  Fifth  Ave- 
nue. A  lady  on  Fifth  Avenue  wanted  me  to  pre- 
pare a  series  of  topics  on  Bible  characters  suitable 
for  lectures  by  various  gentlemen  in  her  own  par- 
lours, where  she  got  together  seventy  or  eighty 
wealthy  ladies.  I  prepared  the  outline  and  took  it 
to  her  and  she  said :  "  I  see  you  have  David,  but 
not  Solomon."  "No,"  I  replied,  "I  have  only 
twelve  persons  to  select,  and  Solomon  was  hardly 
worth  while."  "  But,"  she  said,  "  you  have  got  to 
have  Solomon  as  preparatory  to  David."  My  an- 
swer was,  "  I  never  knew  a  son  was  preparatory  to 
his  father  before." 


The  Teacher^s  Eleven  Helpers         199 

In  the  above-named  case  a  well-known  professor 
in  a  theological  seminary  was  to  deliver  the  first 
lecture,  and  his  theme  was :  "  The  Canon  of  Scrip- 
ture." He  rolled  on  before  these  seventy  or  eighty 
high-bred  ladies  about  the  Targums,  the  Uncials, 
the  Palimpsists,  the  Samaritan  and  the  Peshito, 
and  I  don't  know  what  all.  In  amazement  I  said 
to  myself :  "  I  wonder  whether  these  people  under- 
stand what  he  is  saying."  When  he  closed,  wath  a 
self -contented  smile  on  his  face,  he  said :  *'  If  there 
is  any  lady  who  would  like  to  ask  any  questions  I 
would  be  glad  to  answer  them."  At  that  the 
daughter  of  the  president  of  that  seminary  leaned 
over  to  me  and  whispered :  "  Please  ask  him  what 
he  means  by  canon,"  and  I  said:  "Professor,  a 
lady  wants  to  know  what  you  mean  by  canon." 
I  thought  that  question  would  knock  him  down, 
so  amazed  was  he,  for  really  that  was  one  of  the 
simplest  terms  he  had  used. 

The  trouble  with  our  teaching  is  that  we  fly  too 
high.  Questions  will  bring  us  dowm  so  that  we 
descend  to  the  point  where  the  scholars  live. 

You  can  ask  a  question  to  develop  thought. 
Thought  is  very  vague  in  the  minds  of  many. 
Suppose  that  you  have  a  lesson  on  Moses,  and  that 
you  affirm,  "Moses  was  probably  the  greatest 
man  that  ever  lived."  Now  pause  and  ask  a 
scholar :  "  Why  was  Moses  the  greatest  man  ?  " 
That  at  once  makes  him  stir  around  to  find 
an  answer.  It  makes  him  pull  himself  together 
to  find  out  why.     His  answer  may  be  faulty,  but 


200  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

at  least  he  makes  an  effort,  and  an  effort  is  a  benefit 
to  him. 

A  question  may  be  used  to  lead  to  action.  That 
is  a  most  important  aim  in  view.  I  saw  that  beau- 
tifully done  one  day  when  I  had  made  an  evangel- 
istic address  to  an  up-tow^n  Sunday-school.  The 
superintendent  then  invited  all  who  wanted  further 
advice  to  remain.  One  of  those  who  stayed  was  a 
young  woman,  and  the  superintendent  and  she  and 
I  came  face  to  face.  The  superintendent  said  to 
her:  "Mary,  if  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  were  here 
and  were  to  say  to  you,  '  My  child,  give  Me  your 
heart,'  would  you  do  it  ? "  She  answered,  "  I 
would."  The  superintendent  added,  "  If  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  said,  *  Give  Me  your  hand  in  token 
that  your  heart  goes  with  it,'  would  you  do  so  ?  " 
"I  would."  Then  the  superintendent  said:  "Dr. 
Schauffler  is  Christ's  representative  here  this  day. 
He  is  going  to  ask  you  that  question  now  as  Christ's 
ambassador."  Then  I  said :  "  Mary,  will  you  give 
me  your  hand  in  token  that  you  give  Christ  your 
hand  and  heart  ?  "  and  she  replied :  "  I  will :  here 
it  is." 

Wasn't  he  wise  ?  Wasn't  the  leading  up  of  that 
woman  to  action  by  questions  beautiful,  the  ques- 
tion leading  the  scholar  over  the  dividing  line 
between  contemplation  and  action. 

A  question  may  be  used  to  rebuke  folly  /  not  very 
often,  but  sometimes  wisely.  A  Bible  class  teacher 
in  New  York  had  a  young  man  in  his  class  who 
was  very  trying  because  when  anything  supernatu- 


The  Teacher^s  Eleven  Helpers         201 

ral  came  up  in  the  lesson,  such  as  a  miracle,  he 
would  break  in  and  say :  "  I  don't  believe  it  because 
I  cannot  understand  it."  One  day  riding  into  town 
in  the  train,  teacher  and  scholar  were  together.  The 
teacher  noticed  in  a  field  horses  and  sheep  and 
geese,  and  all  happened  to  be  eating  grass  at  the 
same  time.  The  teacher  saw  his  chance  and  said 
to  the  scholar :  ''  There  are  sheep  and  horses  and 
geese  eating  grass  at  the  same  time.  In  the  case 
of  the  horse  part  of  it  turns  to  horsehair.  In  the 
case  of  the  sheep  part  of  it  turns  into  wool.  In  the 
case  of  the  geese  part  of  it  turns  to  feathers.  Can 
you  explain  that  to  me  ?  "  "  No,"  said  the  young 
man,  "  I  do  not  understand  it."  "  Yery  well,"  said 
the  teacher,  "  then  I  won't  believe  it."  In  this  way 
he  showed  the  young  man  that  because  we  cannot 
understand  is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  believe. 
That  broke  the  scholar  down,  and  he  made  no  such 
foolish  suggestion  in  the  class  after  that. 

One  day  one  of  my  teachers  came  to  me  and 
said :  "  I  wish  you  would  teach  my  class  to-day. 
There  is  a  boy  who  watches  his  chance  to  say  some- 
thing ridiculous  and  so  break  up  the  class."  I  went 
down.  The  lesson  happened  to  be  a  temperance 
lesson.  This  boy  was  quietly  watching  his  chance. 
Among  other  things  I  chanced  to  say  something  to 
this  effect,  that  if  you  think  that  you  can  fool  with 
the  Devil  by  taking  a  little  strong  drink  now  and 
then,  you  will  be  mistaken,  for  he  will  beat  you 
at  that  game.  Immediately  the  boy  said :  "  Will 
he  beat  you  with  a  stick  ?  "    All  the  other  boys 


202  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

laughed.  They  thought  it  clever.  I  said  nothing. 
Presently  I  was  talking  about  games  and  asked  if 
any  of  them  played  games,  and  this  boy  said : 
"  Yes,  I  play  checkers.  I  played  with  my  father 
last  night,  and  beat  him."  At  once  I  replied: 
"  Did  you  beat  him  with  a  stick  ?  "  He  saw  my 
point  and  troubled  me  no  more  with  his  folly. 

It  was  my  privilege  years  ago  to  attend  teaching 
by  questions  and  answers  as  exemplified  in  the 
Teachers'  College  of  New  York  City.  At  that 
time  I  was  trying  hard  to  learn  what  I  might  that 
would  fit  me  for  better  work.  I  would  have  run 
from  Dan  to  Beersheba  to  get  a  little  help  in  this 
line. 

The  principle  used  there  was  this:  First,  the 
teacher  must  never  have  seen  the  scholars  ;  second, 
the  scholars  must  not  know  what  the  lesson  is  go- 
ing to  be ;  third,  the  teacher  must  tell  the  scholars 
nothing ;  fourth,  the  teacher  must  evolve  out  of  the 
scholars  everything.  There  is  a  proposition  for 
you. 

One  day  the  topic  was:  "The  Uses  of  Oils." 
Twenty  boys  and  twenty  girls,  about  twelve  years 
old;  many  visitors.  Teacher  and  scholars  had 
never  faced  each  other  before.  This  was  the  way 
that  clever  woman  began. 

"  '  The  Uses  of  Oils '  is  our  topic.  Have  any  of 
you  got  sewing-machines  in  your  homes  ?  Hands 
please.  Will  you  tell  me  please  if  sometimes  those 
sewing-machines  don't  run  hard  ?  Yes  ?  Well, 
what  is  done  when  your  machine  does  not  run 


The  Teacher's  Eleven  Helpers         203 

smoothly  ?  "  "  Oh,  mother  oils  it."  "  Have  any 
of  you  boys  got  bicycles  ?  Hands.  What  do  you 
carry  with  your  bicycle  to  make  it  run  smooth  ?  " 
"Oil."  "Do  they  use  oil  in  machines  of  every 
kind  at  times?"  "Yes."  "Very  well."  Then 
she  wrote  this  on  the  board :  "  Oil  is  used  for  lubri- 
cating purposes,"  and  she  added,  "  When  we  use 
oil  to  make  machinery  run  smooth  we  call  it  lubri- 
cating it."  She  first  gave  the  thought,  then  she 
gave  the  nomenclature. 

"  How  many  of  you  have  ever  been  sick  ?  Hands. 
What  was  the  matter  with  you?"  "I  had  the 
toothache."  "  Better  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  What  was  the 
matter  with  you  ?  "  "  Awful  stomach-ache."  "  Did 
your  mother  do  anything  for  you?"  "Yes, 
sent  for  the  doctor."  "  Did  you  get  well  ? " 
"Yes."  "Did  the  doctor  give  you  anything?" 
"  Yes."  "  What  did  he  give  you  ?  "  "  Magnesia." 
"  What  was  the  matter  with  you  ?  "  "  Stomach- 
ache." "  Did  your  mother  give  you  anything  ?  " 
"  Yes."  "  What  did  your  mother  give  you  ? " 
"Castor  oil."  "What  did  you  say?"  "Castor 
oil."  "  Oh."  "  When  you  give  a  person  some- 
thing to  make  them  well,  what  do  you  call  it  ?  " 
"  Medicine."  "  Could  Castor  oil  be  called  medi- 
cine ?  "  "  Yes."  She  wrote  on  the  board :  "  Oil 
can  be  used  for  medicinal  purposes." 

So  one  by  one  she  drew  out  the  uses  of  oil, 
telling  them  nothing,  drawing  it  all  out  of  them ; 
giving  them  first  the  idea  and  then  its  nomencla- 
ture.    When  she  came  to  the  matter  of  manufac- 


204  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

turing  purposes  there  was  difficulty.  She  could 
not  tell  them,  so  she  fished  and  fished  for  it,  and 
they  were  all  trying  to  get  at  what  she  was  after. 
At  last  one  boy  said  his  father  had  a  paint-shop. 
"  Do  you  often  go  there  ?  "  "  Yes,  but  mamma 
don't  like  me  to."  "  Why  ?  "  "  Because  I  spoiled 
a  pair  of  trousers  there  once."  "How  did  you 
spoil  them  ?  "  "I  sat  down  on  a  barrel  of  linseed 
oil."  "  A  barrel  of  what  ?  "  "A  barrel  of  linseed 
oil."  "  Well,"  she  said,  "  what  does  your  father 
use  linseed  oil  for  ?  "  "  Oh,"  he  says,  "  he  uses  it  to 
mix  paint  with."  Then  she  had  it.  "  Oil  is  used 
for  manufacturing  purposes." 

She  told  them  nothing.  She  drew  everything 
out  of  them.  They  practically  did  it  all  and  she 
put  it  on  the  board.  What  a  wonderful  use  of 
questions  ! 

Every  teacher  has  one  head;  that  is  to  say, 
one  mind.  This  mind  is  that  which  gives  direc- 
tion to  eye,  ear,  foot,  hand  and  mouth.  This 
head  is  that  with  w^hich  we  gain  our  knowledge, 
with  which  we  direct  every  effort.  This  head  is 
that  which  every  teacher  ought  to  use  (as  also  every 
superintendent)  for  the  gathering  together  of  all 
those  factors  which  make  us  successful  in  our  work. 
We  ought  to  know,  all  of  us,  the  fundamental 
principles  of  pedagogy  and  paidology.  AVe  ought 
to  know,  all  of  us,  the  developing  nature  of  the 
child  so  that  we  can  fit  our  teaching  through 
mouth,  ear  and  eye  to  the  varying  needs  of  the 
scholar.     That    means    some   study   on   our  part. 


The  Teacher's  Eleven  Helpers         205 

That  means  getting,  not  many,  but  the  best  books 
along  the  line  of  the  developing  of  child  nature. 
One  of  the  marked  directions  in  which  child  nature 
develops  is  from  the  egoistic  to  the  altruistic.  The 
little  child  is  egoistic.  It  is  /,  my  opinion,  my  this, 
my  that.  But  when  the  child  reaches  the  age  of 
adolescence  the  altruistic  comes  in.  We  have  to 
know  that,  because  it  is  useless  to  teach  a  beginner 
along  altruistic  lines  and  it  is  folly  to  deal  with 
adults  along  any  other  line  than  that  of  altruism. 
The  boys  and  girls,  before  reaching  adolescence, 
diverge  after  they  reach  the  ages  of  seven  and 
eight.  Before  that  age  they  still  play  together 
and  there  is  no  sex  difference.  But  as  they  grow 
a  little  older  the  boys  begin  to  call  the  girls  ^^  sis- 
sies," and  go  off  by  themselves,  and  the  girls  call 
the  boys  "  nasty,"  and  go  off  by  themselves.  It  is 
hard  to  bring  them  together  during  that  period. 
When  it  comes  to  the  period  of  adolescence  it  is 
hard  to  keep  them  apart  because  every  girl  wants 
a  fellow,  and  when  a  girl  is  so  fortunate  as  to  have 
two  fellows,  she  is  in  the  seventh  heaven.  We 
must  know  these  facts  so  as  to  handle  our  scholars 
in  the  proper  way. 

These  heads  of  ours  are  to  teach  us  not  only  the 
boy,  but  the  Book,  and  that  is  why  I  have  striven 
to  throw  a  little  light  on  the  two.  Mere  listeners 
never  accomplish  anything,  but  work  will  accom- 
plish almost  everything  and  the  poor  teacher  who 
is  willing  to  work  will  grade  up  and  up,  whereas 
the  teacher  who  will  not  work  will  grade  down 


2o6  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

and  down.  You  see  then  how  important  it  is  to 
use  properly  the  capacities  that  God  has  given  us. 

Finally,  the  eleventh  helper  that  we  have  is  the 
heart,  I  showed,  I  think,  yesterday  how  this  heart 
is  dominant  over  all.  It  underlies  all.  God  has 
given  us  our  affections  and  through  these  affections 
we  win  the  affections  of  our  scholars.  That  teacher 
who  loves  the  scholar  will  work  for  that  scholar. 
That  teacher  whose  heart  goes  out  constantly  look- 
ing after  the  welfare  of  those  under  his  care  is  the 
teacher  that  will  gain  favour  in  his  work  and  be 
able  by  his  influence  to  win  the  scholar  for  Christ 
and  for  Godliness.  The  heart  is  our  Gibraltar  and 
if  that  Gibraltar  is  well  kept  then  sooner  or  later 
everything  else  falls  into  line.  It  is  that  heart  that 
will  lead  the  teacher  constantly  to  ask  for  guidance 
divine  and  power  superhuman  in  the  work.  It  is 
that  heart  that  will  lead  the  teacher  to  present  the 
scholar  daily  at  the  throne  of  grace.  My  better  half 
had  a  larger  class  of  young  women  than  she  could 
always  remember  the  names  of,  but  on  her  knees 
every  day  the  class  book  was  open  in  front  of  her 
and  in  private  prayer  it  was  gone  through  every 
day.  That  was  because  the  heart  was  there  and 
the  heart  dominated  all  else. 

The  heart  will  constantly  go  out  to  the  scholar 
in  his  misfortune,  in  his  sickness,  in  times  of  finan- 
cial stringency.  The  heart  will  do  these  manifold 
things  and  so  by  God's  good  grace,  supplementing 
and  directing  all  that  these  ten  other  helpers 
furnish  us,  will  so  coordinate  them  that  we  will  be 


The  Teacher's  Eleven  Helpers         207 

a  benediction  to  our  scholars  without  measure.  The 
heart  will  reach  up  God-ward  first  with  supreme 
love,  will  reach  out  next  scholar- ward  with  equal 
love  and  will  strive  to  bring  the  two  together. 
Then,  by  divine  grace,  there  will  come  to  the  class 
so  great  a  blessing  that  there  will  not  be  room 
enough  to  receive  it. 


XI 

THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  WORKER'S  WIDENING 
HORIZON 

IN"  developing  my  theme  I  must  deal  somewhat 
with  detail.  Detail  is  not  as  interesting  to 
the  average  hearer  as  are  bird's-eye  views  ; 
none  the  less,  no  Sunday-school  worker  is  thor- 
oughly equipped,  and  no  Sunday-school  is  on  the 
up-grade  unless  much  attention  is  paid  to  detail. 

Years  ago  Mr.  Wanamaker  made  a  visit  to  the 
Sunday-school  of  which  I  was  superintendent  and 
when  he  saw  the  condition  of  the  school  he  said 
to  me :  "  What  is  the  secret  of  your  success  ?  " 
I  answered :  "  Attention  to  detail."  "  That  is 
enough,"  he  replied. 

At  one  time  Michael  Angelo  was  chiselling  out 
the  heroic  statue  of  David  that  is  in  Florence  when 
a  friend  visited  him  and  remarked  that  the  work 
was  nearly  finished.  Months  after  the  friend  re- 
turned and  still  Michael  Angelo  was  at  work  on 
that  statue.  The  friend  said  to  him  :  "  I  thought 
you  were  nearly  finished  six  months  ago."  "  Oh, 
no,"  he  said.  "  Well,  what  have  you  been  doing 
these  six  months  ? "  *'  Oh,"  he  said,  "  I  have 
softened  a  little  this  muscle  and  brought  out  a 
little  more  markedly  that  glance  of  the  eye."    "  But 

208 


The  Worker's  Widening  Horizon   '  209 

those  are  all  details.  They  are  mere  trifles,"  the 
friend  said,  to  which  the  great  sculptor  replied : 
"  These  trifles  make  perfection,  but  perfection  is  no 
trifle." 

So  in  Sunday-school  work  trifles  make  perfection, 
but  perfection  is  no  trifle. 

What  I  have  to  say  in  this  chapter  will  be  some- 
what autobiographical.     I  started  in  Sunday-school 
work  as  a  kid,  a  mere  freshman  in  Williams  Col- 
lege, Massachusetts.     My  only  proof  of  fidelity  was, 
first,  that  I  did  try  to  prepare  my  lessons,  and, 
second,  that  I  trudged  two  and  a  half  miles  on  foot 
to  the  school  and  two  and  a  half  back,  and  that  I 
do  not  remember  any  New  England  snow-storm 
with  snow-drifts  up  to  our  breasts  that  kept  a  few 
of  us  from  tramping  through  the  snow  to  get  to 
our  classes.     But,  oh,  the  ignorance  with  which  I 
went  to  my  work  !     Oh,  the  narrow  horizon  that  I 
had,  which  yet  never  occurred  to  me  to  lack  any- 
thing.    I  failed  to  realize  that  my  class  was  a  part 
of  the  larger  unit  of  the  school.     I  failed  to  realize 
that  I  ought  to  visit  my  scholars.     Woe  is  me,  I 
failed  to  realize  that  I  ought  to  know  whether  my 
scholars  were  Christians  or  not.     It  is  pitiful.     Yet 
you  will  meet  Sunday-school  teachers  in  your  work 
just  as  ignorant  as  I  was,  who  need  enlightenment, 
and  a  proper  appreciation  of  their  work,  so  that 
they  shall  see  how  wide  is  the  scope  and  how  vast 
the  influence  of  a  rightly  conducted  Sunday-school. 
When  I  grew  somewhat  older  and  became  a  little 
more  experienced  in  Sunday-school  work  I  saw,  for 


210  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

example,  that  in  the  work  of  the  teacher  for  the 
class  there  were  other  things  that  he  must  attend 
to  besides  the  mere  interpretation  of  the  facts  of 
the  lesson.  He  must  know,  for  example,  what  his 
scholars  are  reading  along  secular  lines,  whether 
they  are  reading  light,  trashy  literature,  poring 
over  the  Sunday  paper  with  its  grotesque  carica- 
tures and  contemptible  comic  page.  He  must  know 
the  companions  of  these  scholars — what  company 
they  keep.  We  have  them  only  one  hour  in  a  week. 
All  the  rest  of  the  time  some  one  else  has  them, 
and  other  influences  are  surrounding  them  that 
may  not  be  uplifting.  If  I  have  a  boy,  for  ex- 
ample, who  is  in  the  telegraph  messenger  service 
where  the  boys  sit  in  the  office  and  exchange  filthy 
stories,  I  must  know  that,  so  that  I  can  meet  the 
situation,  and  can  in  some  way  correct  the  evil  in- 
fluences which  for  six  days,  and  sometimes  seven, 
are  dragging  them  down. 

If  my  girl  is  in  the  department  store  I  must 
know  her  environment.  I  had  at  one  time  in  my 
school  a  very  beautiful  young  woman  who  worked 
in  such  a  store.  While  talking  to  her  one  day  she 
said  to  me,  "  We  have  great  temptations.  Men 
come  in  the  store  and  to  the  lace  counter  (where 
she  was)  and  buy  lace.  Then  by  and  by  a  man 
will  say,  "  I  would  like  to  buy  a  piece  of  lace  and 
wouldn't  you  accept  it  as  a  gift  from  me  ?  "  There 
is  only  one  meaning  to  that.  Or  another  man 
buys  something  from  the  lace  counter  and  then 
says,  "  Sundays  you  must  be  troubled  to  know  how 


The  Worker's  Widening  Horizon      211 

to  spend  the  day.  I  have  a  splendid  span  of  horses 
and  if  you  would  like  we  can  go  for  a  drive  on  the 
Speedway."     There  is  only  one  meaning  to  that. 

See,  the  horizon  widens  from  that  little  circle 
where  I  merely  teach  this  lesson  for  this  Sunday. 
You  go  a  little  further  and  perhaps  you  become 
superintendent  of  a  school.  Most  ministers,  in  my 
judgment,  in  small  churches  ought  to  superintend 
their  own  schools.  I  have  never  had  charge  of  a 
church  that  I  did  not  superintend  my  school.  It 
means  hard  work,  but  what  are  we  here  for  ? 

You  will  very  soon  find  that  the  horizon  widens 
rapidly  when  you  assume  charge  of  a  school.  You 
find  now  that  the  individual  class  is  only  a  unit  in 
the  collection  of  units  that  form  the  school.  You 
will  find  the  interest  of  the  individual  class  must 
sometimes  be  subordinated  to  the  larger  interest  of 
the  school  as  a  whole,  for  the  school  as  a  whole  is 
of  more  importance  than  any  individual  class  that 
wants  to  branch  off  by  itself  and  do  what  seems 
good  in  its  own  eyes. 

Very  soon  your  horizon  broadens  again  and  you 
begin  to  see  that  music  is  more  than  music.  Music, 
rightly  conducted,  is  worship.  In  many  schools 
hymns  are  given  out  without  the  slightest  reference 
to  the  lesson,  or  to  the  conditions  of  the  school. 
Different  conditions  in  the  school  require  different 
hymns.  As  soon  as  you  begin  to  understand  the 
mission  of  church  music,  if  you  are  thoughtful,  you 
realize  that  a  large  part  of  our  hymnology  requires 
explanation.     We  understand  it,  but  our  scholars 


212  God^s  Book  and  God's  Boy 

do  not  understand  it  and,  consequently,  they  sing 
with  spirit,  but  not  with  understanding. 

Take  some  specific  instances.  One  of  our  hymns 
reads : 

*'  Here  I  raise  mine  Ebenezer, 
Hither,  by  Thy  help,  I^m  come.^' 

I  wonder  how  many  of  you  know  what  an  Ebenezer 
is.  Ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  our  scholars 
do  not,  and,  as  a  result,  they  sing  without  under- 
standing. 

*'  From  every  stormy  wind  that  blows, 
From  every  swelling  tide  of  woes, 
There  is  a  calm,  a  sure  retreat ; 
'Tis  found  beneath  the  mercy-seat.'^ 

"When  I  was  a  boy  I  wondered  what  the  mercy- 
seat  was  and  how  I  could  get  under  it  to  get  peace. 
No  one  explained  it  to  me.  When  you  give  out 
hymns  like  these  they  need  explaining  before  you 
sing,  otherwise  the  words  are  often  really  mean- 
ingless. 

How  many  of  our  Sunday-school  scholars  do  you 
suppose  understand  the  allusions  in  the  following 
very  familiar  verse  ? 

"  Though  like  a  wanderer. 
The  sun  gone  down. 
Darkness  be  over  me. 

My  rest  a  stone  ; 
Yet  in  my  dreams  I'd  be 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee." 


The  Worker^s  Widening  Horizon      213 

That  means  nothiDg  to  them.  They  do  not  know 
of  Jacob  at  Bethel,  lying  down  and  making  a  stone 
his  pillow.  They  do  not  know  of  the  ladder  that 
he  saw  in  his  dream  with  angels  descending  and  as- 
cending. The  verse  is  so  much  gibberish  so  far  as 
their  understanding  is  concerned. 

*'  Sinners,  whose  love  can  ne'er  forget 
The  wormwood  and  the  gall. 
Go  spread  your  trophies  at  His  feet. 
And  crown  Him  Lord  of  all." 

I  fancy  there  are  many  adult  scholars  who  do 
not  know  the  meaning  of  the  wormwood  and  the 
gall,  and  so  they,  too,  sing  without  understanding. 
I  could  go  on  in  this  manner  almost  endlessly. 

Of  course,  the  widening  horizon  of  the  Sunday- 
school  superintendent  shows  him  that  he  has  got  to 
have  in  his  school  order.  Order  is  Heaven's  first 
law,  and  it  is  the  last  law  in  a  great  many  Sunday- 
schools.  We  have  what  we  call  "  Opening  Exer- 
cises," which  are  correctly  named,  because  the  door 
keeps  on  opening  to  let  the  late-comers  in,  especially 
during  the  singing.  But  hymns  are  a  form  of  de- 
votion. They  are  worship,  and  we  learn  that  we 
have  to  defend  the  punctual  ones  from  the  disorder 
of  the  late  ones  in  their  worship,  and  therefore  we 
make  proper  arrangements  to  keep  the  late  ones 
out  until  such  time  as  we  are  not  singing  praise  to 
God. 

Our  widening  horizon  makes  us  realize  that 
teachers'  meetings  for  the  study  of  the  lesson  are 


214  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

necessary.  Never  will  you  get  all  the  teachers  to 
attend  the  weekl}^  meeting,  but  if  out  of  twelve  you 
get  five  or  six,  you  should  be  satisfied.  Their  in- 
fluence will  affect  the  others.  They  will  urge  them 
on.  With  a  teachers'  meeting  (without  which  I 
would  conduct  no  Sunday-school  on  earth)  you  find 
better  work  is  done  and  the  school  goes  right  up 
grade. 

You  see  in  these  ways  how  the  horizon  is  stead- 
ily widening  ?  Yery  soon  you  begin  to  understand 
that  you  must  grade  the  school.  A  gentleman  was 
in  to  see  me  this  morning  about  his  particular  class 
where  he  said  that  young  men  and  women  nine- 
teen and  twenty  years  of  age  were  put  into  joint 
lessons  with  children  seven,  eight  and  nine  years 
of  age.  If  the  angel  Gabriel  came  down  to  teach 
that  class  he  could  not  do  it.  You  cannot  teach 
nineteen-year  and  nine-year  old  scholars  the  same 
thing  at  the  same  time.  Gradation  has  to  be  entered 
upon,  so  that  those  who  are  of  a  certain  degree  of 
intelligence  are  put  together.  Those  at  a  higher 
level  are  put  by  themselves.  So  gradation  is  forced 
upon  us  when  we  understand  the  significance  and 
importance  of  our  work  as  teachers. 

When  I  began  to  grade  my  school  I  found  diffi- 
culties because  the  hearts  of  the  teachers  did  not 
respond.  However,  finding  a  teacher,  for  example, 
with  scholars  from  eight  to  sixteen  years  of  age,  I 
knew  perfectly  well  that  that  teacher  could  not  do 
first  class  work,  so  I  prepared  a  blank  which  said, 
"  Dear  friend :  I  find  scholars  in  your  class  from 


The  Worker's  Widening  Horizon      215 

ages  so-and-so  to  so-and-so.  You  must  have  diffi- 
culty in  teaching  scholars  of  such  divergent  ages. 
I  would  suggest  that  you  let  me  regrade  the  schol- 
ars in  your  class  from  age  this  to  age  that."  Some 
of  the  teachers  said,  "  Yes,  try  it."  Some  of  the 
teachers  said,  "  Let  me  alone."  I  let  them  alone 
and  tried  with  those  who  were  willing.  In  about  six 
months  in  a  teachers'  meeting  I  said,  ''  Quite  a 
number  of  us  have  been  trying  very  careful  grada- 
tion. I  would  like  to  hear  what  their  experience 
is."  With  one  accord  they  said,  "  We  never  knew 
the  real  joy  of  teaching  before  as  we  know  it  now." 
Then  I  said,  "  Some  teachers  have  not  had  their 
classes  graded  yet.  I  will  grade  them  if  they 
wish."  Then  all  the  classes  came  in  and  were  prop- 
erly graded. 

You  will  not  be  long  at  your  work  before  you 
understand  that  there  is  something  in  graded  les- 
sons. This  idea  of  grading  lessons,  with  which  I 
had  a  great  deal  to  do  as  chairman  of  the  Inter- 
national Lesson  Committee,  is  good.  The  only 
trouble  is  that  we  have  tried  to  grade  too  minutely. 
We  shall  soon  begin  to  grade  less  minutely  and  by 
departments,  instead  of  by  years.  Even  then  a 
majority  of  the  Sunday-schools  in  the  United 
States  will  not  be  able  to  accept  graded  lessons  be- 
cause they  are  not  well  enough  organized.  About 
twenty  per  cent,  of  the  larger  schools  already  have 
graded  lessons.  Seventy-five  per  cent,  will  not  for 
forty  years  be  able  to  adopt  a  complete  system  of 
graded  lessons. 


2i6  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

You  realize  that  in  your  widening  horizon  the 
main  aim  of  the  Sunday-school  is  conversion  and 
Christian  culture.  That  was  one  of  the  first  things 
that  impressed  itself  on  me.  I  found  that  the 
school  I  took  charge  of  in  New  York  had  been  run- 
ning fourteen  years,  about  one  thousand  strong.  I 
found  that,  excluding  the  primary  department, 
only  two  per  cent,  of  the  scholars  were  members  of 
that  church.  I  saw  that  was  all  wrong.  The  re- 
sult was  that  applying  good  common  sense  methods, 
ten  years  after  that  thirty-six  per  cent,  of  the 
scholars  were  members  of  that  church. 

The  horizon,  however,  widens  again.  You  started 
with  your  class ;  you  widened  to  your  school. 
Presently  the  worker  will  realize  that  in  the  city 
where  he  lives  or  the  county  where  he  is  teaching 
there  are  more  schools  than  his.  His  school  isn't 
IT.  He  will  begin  to  realize  that  he  must  have 
some  relationship  with  the  county  organization  and 
that  he  must  gear  himself  into  that  larger  machin- 
ery so  that  his  school  may  be  a  part  of  the  larger 
body. 

Every  school,  therefore,  ought  to  be  a  member 
of  the  county  association,  if  there  be  one,  in  order 
that  the  school  may  give  and  get :  may  give  of  its 
experience  and  get  of  the  experience  of  others.  In 
that  way  all  the  schools  will  be  enriched,  each  one 
profiting  by  the  mistakes  or  by  the  success  of  the 
others  and  in  a  little  while  the  whole  school  organ- 
ization in  the  county  will  become  more  and  more  a 
power  for  the  spread  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 


The  Worker^s  Widening  Horizon      217 

It  will  not  be  long,  however,  before  you  realize 
again  that  the  state  is  larger  than  the  county.  I 
will  never  forget  when  I  woke  up  to  the  fact  that 
New  York  State  was  larger  than  New  York 
County.  You  realize  that  you  ought  to  grade  into 
another  organization  larger  than  the  last  to  get 
good  work.  Every  county  and  city  association 
ought  to  have  organic  and  vital  union  with  the  as- 
sociation of  the  state.  Nearly  all  of  our  states  are 
organized.  You  have  your  state  organization.  Are 
your  schools  geared  into  the  state  organization  ? 
These  state  associations  have,  as  a  rule,  annual  con- 
ventions where  they  call  the  best  men  of  the  state 
and  such  other  talent  as  they  can  secure  to  set  up 
before  the  Sunday-school  the  highest  standards  of 
excellence.  In  that  way  the  whole  Sunday-school 
work  is  revived,  is  improved  and  becomes  a  great 
power  in  the  community.  Of  course,  this  gearing 
into  the  larger  organization  means  you  give  an  an- 
nual contribution  to  that  organization,  because  or- 
ganizations have  some  legitimate  expenses  and 
every  school  in  the  state  ought  to  give  to  the  state 
Sunday-school  treasury. 

Well,  we  haven't  gotten  thus  far  before  another 
horizon  begins  to  dawn  on  you  and  you  begin  to 
realize  that  the  state  is  not  everything.  The 
United  States  is  larger  than  any  state,  even  Texas  ; 
and  you  begin  to  realize  that  the  United  States  is 
organized,  together  with  Canada,  into  what  is 
called  the  International  Sunday-School  Associa- 
tion.    You  begin  to  see  that  there  is  something 


2l8  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

nation-wide,  and,  indeed,  larger  than  that,  for  we 
are  allied  with  the  Dominion  north  of  us.  Every 
Sunday-school,  therefore,  ought  to  be  an  organic 
part  of  that  larger  unity.  Yet  I  fear  that  there  are 
thousands  of  schools  that  do  not  know  there  is  an 
International  Sunday-School  Association. 

This  International  Sunday-School  Association  has 
triennial  conventions  and  the  first  one  that  I  at- 
tended was  held  in  Atlanta,  Georgia,  in  1877.  We 
came  down  from  the  North  to  that  convention  in 
considerable  numbers.  Behind  the  platform  in  the 
convention  church  there  was  a  map  of  the  United 
States.  Every  state  that  was  organized  had  on  it  a 
large  gold  star.  In  every  state  every  county  that 
was  organized  had  on  it  a  small  gold  star.  My 
state,  New  York,  of  course,  had  a  large  star  and 
having  sixty-one  counties,  all  organized,  had  sixty- 
one  small  stars,  so  that  the  state  was  considerably 
gilded.  Illinois,  Indiana,  New  Jersey,  Massachu- 
setts, all  had  their  large  and  their  small  stars. 
Georgia  had  no  star  of  any  kind.  Well,  our  Georgia 
friends  stood  that  for  two  days.  Oh,  that  awfully 
blank  spot  on  the  map  called  Georgia !  On  the 
morning  of  the  third  day  some  dear  brother  from 
Georgia  had  cut  out  a  piece  of  gold  paper  the  size 
of  the  whole  state  and  had  pasted  it  over  the  state. 
When  some  one  said,  "  I  see  a  great  change  has 
taken  place  on  the  map,"  this  man  replied,  "  Yes, 
we  of  Georgia  are  sick  of  seeing  Georgia  with  no 
gold.  I  have  prophetically  covered  it  with  gold." 
Three  years  later  the  convention  met  in  Toronto  and 


The  Worker's  Widening  Horizon      219 

seventy-two  delegates  came  up  from  Georgia, 
headed  by  their  governor.  They  had  been  aroused. 
Our  going  down  there  had  brought  life,  enthusiasm 
and  energy  into  the  state  of  Georgia,  so  that  the 
whole  state  pledged  itself  to  the Sunday-schoolidea 
as  it  had  never  done  before  and  when  these  seventy- 
two  Georgians  came  marching  in  and  sat  down 
side  by  side  in  the  Toronto  convention  there  was 
tremendous  enthusiasm,  not  on  their  part  only,  but 
on  the  part  of  every  one  who  had  been  at  the 
previous  triennial  convention. 

You  see  when  this  international  convention 
passes  from  state  to  state  it  arouses  the  attention 
of  the  state.  It  stimulates  the  workers  of  the  state. 
Those  who  are  present  catch  the  enthusiasm  and  go 
back  to  their  schools  refreshed  and  fitted  to  do 
better  work  in  the  future  than  they  have  ever  done 
in  the  past. 

In  this  way  this  tremendous  horizon  broadens  and 
broadens  until  we  realize  that  we  are  an  army  about 
twenty  million  strong,  fourteen  million  of  us  in  the 
United  States  and  the  balance  in  Great  Britain, 
India,  China,  Japan,  the  islands  of  the  ocean, 
Ireland,  France,  Germany,  Africa.  This  makes  us 
realize  that  we  are  not  a  few  fighting  alone,  but 
that  we  are  a  part  of  a  great  and  valiant  army. 

You  begin  to  see,  fellow  workers,  how  thus  far 
all  this  makes  our  horizon  almost  world-wide.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  we  have  got  to  broaden  it  once 
more  so  that  it  may  be  truly  world-wide  and  so 
there    is    a    World's    Sunday-School  Association. 


220  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

Thus  we  have  the  individual  Sunday-school ;  we 
have  the  city  or  county  organization ;  we  have  the 
state  association ;  we  have  the  International  Sun- 
day-School Association ;  now  we  have  the  World 
Convention,  and  that  takes  in  all  Sunday-school 
workers  from  all  over  the  world.  They  also  have 
their  conventions  ;  though  rarely  in  this  country. 

The  first  of  these  conventions  was  held  in  Jeru- 
salem, in  1904 ;  "  Jerusalem  the  Golden,"  as  it 
never  had  been  for  centuries  before  that  convention 
met  there.  We  chartered  from  the  United  States 
a  passenger  steamer,  filled  only  with  Sunday-school 
delegates.  All  along  the  line  it  made  its  impres- 
sion. When  it  stopped  at  any  port  the  question 
was,  "  Who  are  all  these  ?  "  "  That  is  a  Sunday- 
KJhool  convention.  These  are  delegates  from 
America  to  Jerusalem." 

There  was  no  building  in  Jerusalem  that  could 
hold  them.  They  had  their  tents  and  many  meet- 
ings were  held  in  the  open,  on  the  Mount  of  Olives 
and  on  Calvary. 

In  1907,  they  met  in  Kome,  the  Imperial  City, 
and  there  again  these  thousands  poured  in  and  the 
idea  was,  "  Sunday-school."  The  next  convention 
was  in  1910,  in  Washington,  D.  C.  Then  1913,  last 
year,  these  delegates  gathered  together  in  Zurich. 

I  might  say  here  that  in  order  to  do  all  that  is 
possible  in  behalf  of  those  who  buy  tickets,  excur- 
sions were  afterwards  arranged,  from  Zurich  down 
through  the  Rhine,  along  the  Riviera,  and  through 
certain  portions  of  Italy.     Everything  is  done  to 


The  Worker's  Widening  Horizon      221 

make  each  of  these  excursions  as  profitable  to  these 
workers  as  possible. 

The  next  convention  comes  in  1916  and  is  to  be 
held  in  Tokyo.  See ;  you  have  had  Palestine,  Italy, 
Switzerland,  the  United  States,  and  next  the  great 
empire  in  the  Far  East.  We  propose  there  to 
arouse  the  workers,  in  Japan  and  in  near-by  Korea, 
so  that  we  can  bring  to  them  our  Anglo-Saxon  views 
of  the  Sunday-school  idea,  so  as  to  bring  up  the  na- 
tive children  from  earliest  childhood  in  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord  to  the  end  that  they  may 
be  workers  in  the  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Do  you  see  where  w^e  are  ?  My  theme  was : 
The  Sunday-School  Workers'  Widening  Horizon, 
and  it  has  become  world-wide  so  that  we  may 
realize  in  every  school  that  comes  into  this  world- 
wide cooperation  the  magnitude  of  the  opportunity 
and  the  fullness  of  the  privilege  and  power  that 
the  Sunday-school  organization  throughout  the 
world  is  able  to  exert  for  the  uplift  of  mankind 
and  for  the  bringing  on  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

There  have  been  many  things  that  have  been  ac- 
complished by  the  International  Sunday-School 
Lesson  Committee.  For  many  years  I  have  been 
studying  the  International  Uniform  Lesson  System. 
That  system  having  been  adopted  by  the  major 
part  of  the  Sunday-schools  of  the  world,  has 
brought  forward  a  set  of  writers  for  Sunday-school 
lessons  such  as  the  world  has  never  seen.  It  is  pos- 
sible now  to  secure  the  best  talent  to  write  Sunday- 
school  lessons,  for  the  demand  for  the  lesson  leaves 


222  God's  Book  and  God's  Boy 

of  the  different  denominations  is  so  great  that  we 
can  pay  the  workers  the  best  prices  and  yet  make 
money  for  the  various  Sunday-school  organizations 
of  the  denominations. 

I  have  seen  Sunday-schools  shrink  up  in  their 
own  little  circumference,  and  stagger  on  and  fall 
paralyzed.  I  have  seen  Sunday-schools  branch  out 
in  this  broader  sympathy,  this  international  idea, 
and  receive  the  fullest  blessing  from  it. 

There  is  one  more  widening  of  this  horizon.  So 
far  it  has  been  an  earthly  widening,  including  all 
classes  of  men  here  in  this  life.  Now  my  vision, 
like  that  of  St.  John  on  Patmos,  stretches  beyond 
and  I  begin  to  see  that  the  influence  of  the  Sun- 
day-school is  not  only  terrestrial,  but  is  celestial. 
I  begin  to  see  the  ransomed  of  the  world,  the  thou- 
sands and  millions  of  those  brought  to  Christ  by 
the  Sunday-school,  who  have  heard  the  Master's 
call  and  have  gathered  beyond  the  river,  and  now 
they  are  beginning  to  sing  that  celestial  song: 
Unto  Him  that  loved  us  and  gave  Himself  for  us, 
and  that  washed  us  in  His  own  precious  blood, 
unto  Him  be  glory  forever  and  forever. 

Fellow  workers,  that  work  is  not  terrestrial  only, 
is  not  international  only  ;  it  has  a  wide  horizon  that 
takes  in  the  other  world.  So  we  work  with  our 
fellow  beings  for  glory  eternal  when  the  ransomed 
of  the  redeemed  in  the  Lord  come  home  with 
shouts  of  thanksgiving  and  triumph  unspeakable. 

2  Printed  in  tht  United  States  of  America 


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W.  Stoughton,  A.I.A.  Graphically  illustrated,  i2mo, 
cloth,  net  $1.25.     By  WM.  WALTER  SMITH,  A.B.,A.N. 

"  A  veritable  mine  of  information  and  inspiration.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  no  pastor,  superintendent,  officer,  or  teacher  of  the 
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where  he  says:  "  I  have  tried  not  to  lay  too  much  stress  on  methods." 
While  he  puts  "  motives  "  first,  however,  he  does  not  ignore  "  meth- 
ods," but  presents  those  which  modern  practice  has  proved  to 
be  effective. 

How  to  Conduct  a  Sunday  School 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25.         By  MARION  LAWRANCE, 

General  Secretary  of  the  International  S.  S.  Association. 
"  Every  superintendent,  teacher,  pastor,  officer,  should  own  it.     A 
perfect  mine  of  hints  and  plans  from  the  most  experienced  Sunday- 
school  leader  of  the  day." — Sunday  School  Times. 

Thirty  Years  at  the  Superintendent's  Desk 

Lessons  Learned  and  Noted.  A  multum  in  parvo  of 
practical  suggestions.     Net  25c.  By  J.  R.  PEPPER 

The  Working  Manual  of  a  Successful  Sunday 

School  By  MARION  LAWRANCE 

Cloth,  net  50c. 
"  Valuable  suggestions  for  superintendents,  ministers." — S.  S.  World. 

The  Modern  Sunday  School  in  Principle  and 

Practice    i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00.   By  HENRY  F.  COPE 

"We  know  of  no  more  scholarly  nor  practical  manual.  Thor- 
oughly scientific,  intelligible  to  the  man  of  average  experience,  it 
gives  the  newest  experiments  with  all  grades." — Heidelberg  Teacher. 

The  School  of  the  Church  Its  Pre-eminent  Place 
and  Claim.   i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00.  By  J.  M.  FROST,D.D. 

"  Commended  for  its  careful  analysis  of  the  relation  of  the  Sunday- 
school  to  the  Church,  the  teaching  function  of  the  spiritual  factors 
In  that  function." — Standard. 

The  Church  and  Her  Children  A  practical  Solu- 
tion of  the  Problem  of  Child  Attendance.  i2mo,  cloth, 
net  $1.00.  By  HENRY  W.  HULBERT 

"  Pierces  to  the  heart  of  one  of  the  most  important  and  significant 
concerns  of  the  present-day  church — the  problem  of  fixing  the  habit 
of  church  attendance  in  children." — Continent. 

Sunday  School  Success  By  amos  r.  wells 

i2mo,  cloth,  gilt  top,  net  $1.00. 
"  The  best  hand-book  on  methods  of  work  and  mastery  of  difficul- 
tir"  we  have  yet  seen.     There  is  not  a  dull  chapter  in  it." 

— Evangelical  Messenger. 


FOR  THE  SUPERINTENDENT 

The  Work  of  the  Sunday  School    A  Manual  for 

Teachers.     12ino,  cloth,  net  $1.<  0. 

By  RAY  CL\RKSON  HARKCR 

"A  manual  for  teachers.  Tn-ats  of  some  of  the  supremely  signifi- 
cant factors  that  must  be  properly  handieJ  in  e\  cry  SLhool." 

—  United  Presbyterian. 

Three  Years  With  the  Children 

12mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00.  By  AMOS  R.  WELLS 

"Abundant  and  supgrestive  methods  for  all  sorts  of  addresses  to 
children,  blackboard  taUs,  object  lessons,  conver^at  ons,etc." 

— Baptist  Union. 

Children's  Story-Sermons     By  hugh  t.  kerr,  d.d. 

12mo,  cloth,  net;?1.00. 
"The  story  sermons  are  so  attractivs.  so  simple,  so  full  of  action, 
and  mt-  rest  and  incident,  that  they  will  be  valued  for  the  re-reading 
and  re-telluig  to  the  delight  of  the  z\\\\6..''''— Sunday  School  Titnes. 

Little  Ten-Minutes  By  frank  t.  bayley 

Talks  of  a  Pastor  to  His  Children.  12mo,  cloth,  net,  $1.00. 
The  Advance  says:    "Dr.  Bayley  gr>ems  to  be  able   to  create  a 
good  story  out  of  the  commonest  ei:periences." 

FOR  THE  BEGINNERS 

Kindergarten  Bible  Stories      Old  Testament.   Illus- 
trated, 12mo,  cloth,  net  $1. 25.     By  LAURA  ELLA  CRAGIN 

"Altogether  it  is  the  best  book  of  Bible  stories  we  have  seen  in  a 
long  time.  The  author's  gift  in  bringing  out  the  lessons  of  the  stories 
is  especially  noted.'"— Christian  Obsejx'er. 

Old  Testament  Stories  for  Little  Children  Illus- 
trated, 12mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25.    By  LAURA  ELLA  CRAGIN 

"Insight,  historic  imagination,  graphic  fancy  and  tender  love  in 
these  narratives  are  combined  with  faithfulness  to  Scripture.'' 

—  West»m  Recorder. 

Bible  Stories  to  Tell  Children    By  w.  d.  Murray 

Illustrated,  net  $1.00. 
"The  idea  in  re-telling  some  of  the  old  Bible  stories  by  means  of 
conversations  carried  on  by  the  actors  is  to  make  the  children  feel 
what  tlie  heroes  thought  and  felt. — Christian  Endeavor  World. 

Tell  Me  a  True  Story  By  mary  stewari 

Tales  of  Bible  Heroes  for  Children  of  To-day.     lUus^ 
trated,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 
Henry  van  Dyke  says:  "It  brings  the  meaning  of  Christianity  to 
the  children's  level." 

The  Shepherd  of  Us  All  By  mary  stewart 

Stories  of  the  Christ  Retold  for  Children.     Illustrated, 

net  $1.25. 
There  is  a  touching  beauty  and  clearness  about  Miss  Stewnrt'o 
pictures  of  the  Christ  life  which  will  ineffaceably  impress  itself  upon 
the  child  heart. 


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